One More to Go
by Messing With Minds
Summary: Ryan and Troy were never the best of friends. But as an unfortunate chain of events hits Troy hard, he finds Ryan to be the only one to turn to. As their Sr. year progresses, can this change to something more? HSM 2 never happened. Slash. Tryan. TroyxRyan
1. New Neighbors

A/N: This is the first HSM thing I've ever written, and I'll probably get shit for writing it from my friends, but it's the onl

A/N: This is the first HSM thing I've ever written, and I'll probably get shit for writing it from my friends, but it's the only thing that will work with the story line. There has been no HSM 2 in this story and there never will be. So the kids do not all spend the summer together, and Troy and the Evan's are still not very friendly with each other. So, on with the story. Its slash, so I better not get any flames saying that this is disgusting. Thank You.

**New Neighbors**

May 31, 7:00 am

Troy was up and, for the first time in a year, actually happy on a school day morning. He had eaten breakfast (pancakes, his favorite) and was out of the house walking towards his car when his neighbor's dog flashed by. The small little yorkie was known for making escape attempts, and his fat little owner was known for never being able to catch him. So since he was in such a good mood, Troy decided to help out his pudgy little neighbor, Mr. Howards. He chased the little dog all the way down his block until he had it cornered between a house and a fence, and made a lunge towards his pursuit. He came up from the short battle holding the little squirming dog in both hands, victorious.

As he walked down the street towards the still panting Mr. Howards, he took a look around noticing how nice a street it was. There were plenty of trees along the street for shade, all the houses were pretty looking with nice green lawns and well kept flower beds, and all of the neighbors who were visible were smiling or waving or happy in some way shape or form. Troy noticed that the three houses in the middle of the street that had for sale signs had new additions: a very large and striking SOLD slapped across each sign. "Looks like new neighbors" he mused to himself as he handed the dog to Mr. Howards. Fun.

7:15 am

Troy had made it to school in record time. He hit none of his usual lights, didn't have to wait for anyone to cross the streets, and was able to get a prime parking spot in the Junior lot. "Looks like just about everything is going my way today" he laughed as he walked to the school to see if any of his friends were there that early. Apparently they weren't. So, he sat down by the front of the school under the tree and waited, happily musing over nothings.

Now some of you may be wondering just what has Troy Bolton so happy on such a normal seeming day. Well if you haven't guessed by now, its not a normal day at all. Its Troy's last day as a Junior in high school. That meant a day of no work, a few class parties, year book signing, and, of course, summer vacation starting at exactly 3:00 pm. He was actually sort of glad the had made the scheduling mistake that made them take this extra day. It meant that he didn't have to take exams on his last day of school for once. He could actually have a fun time. Nothing could bring this boy down. By the time he had snapped out of his musings it was almost time for school, and he could see Chad entering the school building.

Troy quickly got up from his spot under the tree and ran to catch up to him. He slapped his best friend on the back and smiled. "Almost done, dude!" he shouted.

"Dude, I know! I can't wait for summer."

"So what are you doin'?" Troy asked.

"My parents are talking me on a trip around the fucking world. It's gonna be awesome! See foreign lands, drink foreign beer, meet foreign ladies…"

"Yeah and how's Taylor feel about this"

"Aw man she's cool with it, she trusts me. And besides its not like I'm gonna cheat on her or anything. At least not plan to." He said with a sly grin on his face.

"Yeah well whatever you do, keep me posted, 'cause I'm stuck here with my parents all summer. Doing nothing and playing basketball."

"Well have fun with that. We can hang out when I get back in July." Chad said as he walked off to his first period class.

3:03 pm

School had been sort of fun for Troy today. He hadn't had to do any work, and he got inundated with year book signing requests from the majority of the school. The only problem was that he hadn't gotten to see Gabby. Not that that was unusual. There was no way he could get into any of her advanced classes, and they didn't have the same lunch or study hall, but they usually found a way to see each other. As he stood in front of the school, looking for his girlfriend he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Hey Troy" He heard a familiar voice.

He whipped around and grabbed the small girl behind him to twirl her in the air.

"We did it babe!" he said with a huge smile.

"One year down, one more to go." Gabby replied with an equally big smile. She quickly leaned down to give Troy a peck on the cheek as the school continued to empty out around them.

"So you wanna hang out this summer." Troy asked, putting the girl down before she got dizzy.

"Don't you remember Troy? I'm going to be at that Future Leaders of America Seminar all summer. Except for this week and the one right before we go back I'm going to be in Boston." She said with a frown.

"Oh… yeah. Now I remember. Well then we'll just have to hang out this week." He said forcing a smile. Apparently he was the only one staying in town this summer.

"Oh, don't worry. You'll have a blast." Gabby said, smiling happily, eventually getting Troy to smile too. "And we'll start right now. You, Chad, Taylor, and I are going to get some pizza and celebrate our survival!" and with that, she pulled he boyfriend towards the parking lot to find their friends.

9:35 pm

The pizza party had evolved into a movie double date, into another pizza party, into a single date with just Troy and Gabby at Gabby's house… watching a movie. Of course Troy couldn't tell you anything about that movie, but he could tell you what Gabby's mouth tasted like after she had eaten too much pepperoni pizza.

As he was driving down his street on the way home he noticed an anomaly, that caused him to do a double-take. In the very middle of the street where just this morning there had three beautiful houses, there was nothing. Just a dirt lot and a big sign that was too dark to read. Troy sat in his car for a few minutes just looking at the gaping hole between the two next-door houses, before he drove home and spent the rest of his night on the computer.


	2. Summer

Summer

**Summer**

June 4, 11:13 pm

Troy was officially alone. He had spent the prior week with his friend packing in as much summer fun as he could. Even if that usually ended up meaning them hanging out at someone's house doing absolutely nothing. But now it was all over. Chad had left this afternoon for England, and Gabby was leaving tomorrow in the early morning. Taylor was, surprise surprise, going to the same conference as Gabby. Every single one of his friends on the basketball team had gone on either a trip or to basketball camp. Even Kelsi had gotten into a musical composition camp and was packing her bags to leave tomorrow. Had he just not gotten the memo on the whole summer trip thing? Looked like this summer was going to be filled with one thing: basketball.

June 11, 9:14 am

Make that two things. As much as Troy loved basketball, everything had it's limits. There was only so much he could take of self made drills and free throw shots. Even playing with his dad was getting old. Maybe because his dad was getting too old to be competition. Whatever it was, it all added up to one thing: boredom. And so now Troy was sitting at the breakfast table hovering over the Classifieds looking for that new thing to add to his list of summer activities: a job.

June 20, 4:17 pm

Well it was official, Troy Bolton, golden boy of East high was now working at a putt-putt course. But hey, it paid good money, was the least boring of all the options, and gave the wonderful options of having all the free hotdogs you could eat, and a free game of golf whenever you wanted once the park closed down.

Over the past couple of weeks he had gotten a few messages from Chad and a few hundred from Gabby. The seemed to be having fun.

The lot down the street was no longer a lot. It now had the framework of a massive house. Turns out some rich developer had decided the street was as nice as Troy thought it was, and bought all three houses so that he could make his own. Considering how massive it was, the thing was going up fast. It would be finished by the end of the summer, or so Troy guessed by the pace of construction.

June 27, 10:18 am

Turns out working at a putt-putt course wasn't as exciting as Troy expected, but it kept it entertained. And the hotdogs, well, Troy could never eat more than one without feeling like he was going to throw up. And putt-putt was never that much fun on your own.

The house down the street was doing great. They had finished the framework and were working on the floors and ceilings now. It was starting to look interesting and already dwarfed all the other houses on the street.

But as the house grew larger the messages and calls from his friends had grown less and less. He still heard from Chad the same amount: about once every two days. Most of it dealt with basketball strategy, how to drink without his parents catching him, and a few tidbits about the "fine honies" he was missing. But Gabby's deluge of messages had slowed down considerably. He hadn't talked to her in two days. The last time they had talked she was telling him about all of her friends there. The list of names went on for ages, but Taylor wasn't on it. Maybe she just forgot.

July 4, 8:23 pm

Fourth of July was going great. The course was closed but Troy and some of the young employees had snuck in earlier and set of a few firecrackers. They had gotten away without being caught. At the moment he was sitting on his roof with a can of beer in his had, 5 empty ones down below, and watching the fireworks.

Troy still heard from Chad every other day, making him jealous of the things he got to do. Right now he was in Australia; he had gotten to pet a kangaroo yesterday. Troy was really getting tired of spending the summer alone. Not even one of his friends had gotten back, and the other kids who worked at the course lived like an hour away. It didn't help that he hadn't heard from Gabby since she had told him about her friends. He had called her five times but had only gotten her voice mail. He wondered if maybe her phone had broken.

As he looked over at his neighborhood, he couldn't help but see that even today, there was a team of builders working on the house. "Fucker must be richer than I Bill Gates." He mumbled drunkenly. Still as sad as when he had climbed down the roof, he shuffled into his room window and fell asleep.

July 13, 12:31 pm

Jason had just gotten back from camp yesterday, and Troy had taken the jump at hanging out with him. Unfortunately, he was leaving again tomorrow for a family vacation. When he got home that night Troy asked his parents why they hadn't booked a family vacation.

"You told us you didn't want one." His mom said.

"What? When?" he asked in astonishment. Had he been drunk or something?

"We asked you if you wanted to do anything this summer and you said 'nah, I just wanna hang out with my friends and do nothing all summer'. So that's what we let you do." She said before she left the living room and went to bed.

July 14, 4:37 pm

When Troy opened his paycheck from work that week he was met with an extra piece of paper. A pink piece of paper to be exact. Turns out he did get caught setting off the fireworks and so had the other kids. They had already all been replaced. So much for something to do.

At the moment Troy was sitting on his computer, on Facebook. He looked at his friends list and noticed that Gabby was on. He wrote on her wall and sent her a private message to try to get her attention. And hour and 37 wall posts from Chad later, she still hadn't responded.

July 27, 12:29 pm

Troy had never been so bored in his life. Basketball had lost it's gleam of fun, and Troy had come to learn that there is such a thing as too much internet. He had seen all the summer blockbusters… twice. He would give just about anything to talk to someone. Just then his phone rang.

_Gabby 3_ read on the screen of his phone and he quickly flipped it open.

"Gabby!" he nearly shouted with excitement

"Hey Troy! How have you been?" she asked nonchalantly.

"Bored as hell. I got fired from the putt-putt course. What have you been up to, why haven't you been talking to me?" He asked, getting to the point quickly.

"Oh Troy! I'm sorry. We've been doing so much here that I forget what's going on and my phone broke a while ago. I'm sorry." She said, almost convincingly. Luckily Troy was too desperate for human contact to press it any further.

"So what's up?" he asked, starving for information.

"Well… I'm coming home… in two days!" she said gleefully.

"Really? Thank god. Do you wanna hang out again?" He asked.

"Oh Troy, I want to do more than hang out. You have no idea how much I've missed you."

"Oh… wow… well then. I guess I will see you in two days." Stuttered a stunned Troy.

"Oh you will."

"Well then see you."

"See you soon."

"Love you."

"Can't wait to see you again." And the Gabby hung up.

Troy had never heard Gabby talk like that or say those sorts of things. He had no idea what to expect now.

July 28, 1:46 pm

The house was officially finished yesterday. It was painted an orange-yellow color with a tiled roof. It filled out every foot of that lot, and, it turned out, the three behind it too. They were turned into a pool/guest house area. Whoever those people were Troy hoped they were nice enough to let him use their pool.

Today the family was moving in and Troy caught a glimpse of the movers taking furniture in and out of the house as he spent the day dreaming about Gabby. At around 2 he decided to go for a walk around the block.

As he passed the moving vans he saw that the men had moved on from furniture and were now taking into the house a truck-full of boxes and clothes. Troy noticed that one of the clothes racks held a lot of pink. A really large amount of pink, all of it organized into matching outfits. He didn't notice another rack of clothes that contained over fifty outfits, all with matching hats. He did, however notice the high pitched scream as he returned from his walk, and turned to see a blonde girl dressed in pink screaming her head off at one of the movers.

Troy walked closer so he could watch the scene unfold, which is when he got a rude awakening. For the girls standing in the yard in front of him was none other that Sharpay Evans. Standing next to her, attempting to calm her down, was a ruffled Ryan Evans. Their parents were standing in the doorway, laughing at the fate of the poor mover.

Troy noticed that Ryan wasn't wearing his usual matching outfit and hat. In fact he was actually dressed kind of normal. He was wearing blue jeans and a white undershirt. His short hair was really kind of mussed up, and he was frantically trying to calm the raging bitch beside him down. He looked around in fear and saw Troy, standing there and looking at him and his sister. And then Ryan Evans, the drama king of East high, quickly turned around and ran inside.

Troy turned to look at Sharpay again and noticed she looked even angrier than before. "Fuck" he said to himself. "Of all the rich people to move to my street it had to be the ice-queen." He turned around and walked back into his house.

"Fuck."

A/N: I know that this seemed sort of jumbled and not very well done but I did that on purpose. It gets more interesting but I really needed to set a background before all the drama starts. Tell me what you think of it so far.


	3. Night to Remember

A/N: I know there are a lot of you reading this story, so please, please review

A/N: I know there are a lot of you reading this story, so please, please review. Any comment other than a blatant flame would be appreciated. For all those young folks you might want to know that there is an M rated section in here. For SEX. Sorry had to get your attention. If you don't like that stuff don't read it, but its there.

**Night to Remember**

July 30, 3:11pm

Troy looked out of the window that stood open in the wall of his room. He had his iTunes playing on his computer, and his facebook page was up in front of his face. He clicked on Chad's new profile picture and saw that he had a new message. When he checked his inbox he was surprised to find a message from Gabby titled 'Tonight…'; he immediately clicked to open it and find out what she wanted to say.

_Hey Troy_

_dont forget ur taking me out 2nite!_

_pick me up idk maybe 8_

_if you sho me a good time_

_who knos what I might sho u…_

Troy just sat there at his computer staring. He quickly clicked on Gabby's profile but she had already logged off. "What is up with her? She's never acted like this be—."

But his thought was cut off by a very sharp, very loud screech. Troy whipped his head around to look out the window towards the source of that awful noise. He found the area from which the noise was emitted just in time to see a shirtless Ryan Evans running from the side of his house to the front. He looked less pale than usual, like he had been sitting out in the son for a while. Right behind the male Evans twin, a wet and enraged looking Sharpay appeared from the side of the house. Even from this distance, Troy could hear her yelling at he brother.

"RYAN!!" Troy saw Ryan stop running and turn around, only to start laughing hysterically. Troy had to admit, Sharpay did kind of look like a wet cat.

"Are you LAUGHING?! Ryan Evans, you are so DEAD." Ryan suddenly stopped laughing and looked like he was making excuses to his enraged sister.

"I'll teach YOU to push me in the pool!!" And then Sharpay attacked.

Troy looked away before it got too ugly. He had to admit, it took a lot of bravery to push Sharpay Evans in a pool. He didn't know Ryan had it in him.

His buzzing cell phone suddenly drew his attention away. He saw _'1 New Text'_, he flipped open his phone: _'1 New Message: Gabby 3'_. He opened up the message from his girlfriend:

_Make that 7. Parents will be gone all nite. Wear sumthing sexy._

"What the fuck is up with her."

July 30, 6:32 pm

Troy was nervous. Troy was more nervous than when he had gone on his first date with Gabriella. He thought the tough part was over. He and Gabby had been going out for almost 6 months now. This was the weirdest she had ever acted.

Yeah, he knew eventually they would start having… sex. But before summer she would barely let him French kiss her! She was always the more compassionate one, who wanted to hold hands and have small innocent kisses. They had never gotten anywhere near sex.

Sure Troy had thought about it. But in his mind it had always been after a romantic night. It had always been planned. Needless to say it was always wonderful. Hell, those thought had gotten him through some pretty long weekends and breaks. But this was not how he had though of it.

As Troy looked at himself in the mirror, he wondered what had gotten to Gabby. Two months ago she was practically wearing a chastity belt. He mussed up his hair one more time, and examined his face to make sure there were no hidden zits. Did this entire change happen while she was at that conference thing? He walked out of his bathroom and made his way downstairs.

He was met with the usual chorus of "oooh" and "so cute", "Doesn't he look good honey", "Have fun son" – and then he was out the door.

"Not even a be safe." He mused as he drove down the driveway. "Am I that trustworthy?" And then Troy drove off in the direction of Gabriella's House.

7:04 pm

Troy pulled up in front of Gabby's house and turned off the ignition. He sat in the car for a few seconds, calming himself down. He looked in the mirror and fixed his hair again. He buttoned and unbuttoned his shirt, deciding whether or not to show the top of his chest. He decided to go unbuttoned. He took one more deep breath and got out of the car.

The walk up to Gabby's front door seemed longer than usual. When he finally reached the entrance to the house, he rang the doorbell…

He heard a voice from the other side of the door call out "Come in…"

Troy opened the door and saw that all the lights in the house had been dimmed. "Gabby?" he called up into the strange darkness.

"I'm up here. Come on." He heard that same voice again. It almost sounded like Gabby, but her's was never that throaty.

"Okay… are you okay?" He called out in an attempt to keep his cool as he reached the top landing.

"I'm fine" came out from the room on his left. "Why don't you come in here…" she said. It was definitely not a question.

As Troy made his way down the hallway he noticed a soft light coming out of the room, and the distinctive smell of a scented candle. He paused for a second while he was still out of sight of the room. 'This is it' he said to himself, and with another deep breath, he stepped inside the room.

There, sitting on the bed was not Gabriella. Or, at least, not any Gabriella Troy had ever seen. She was wearing a deep red lipstick; it matched her fingernails. She was wearing a good amount of eye-liner and blush. And that was about it. On the rest of her body, she wore nothing more than a bra, her panties, and a very very sheer negligee top.

"Hey…" he mumbled awkwardly.

"Hey there big boy" she said in that same husky, throaty voice.

"Um…" he had no idea what to do.

"Why don't you come over here…" she suggested, patting the bed next to her.

Troy made his way over to where she had indicated, as if pulled by invisible strings. "So wha—"

But he had no chance to awkwardly mumble anything else, because Gabriella suddenly threw herself on top of him.

Troy was laying back on the bed with Gabriella pushing herself on top of him. Her mouth was sloppily covering his, and he could feel her tongue attempt to push through his lips. Troy lay there as the girl on top of him ran her tongue along his cheekbone and began to kiss his neck.

"Troy… _kiss_… You have no idea… _gasp_… how long…_ kiss_ I've been waiting for this…" She worked her way down his neck and began hastily undoing his shirt buttons. Troy just lay there, with his arms by his side, not really knowing what to do.

Gabriella finished undoing his shirt and took it off with little effort. She suddenly sat up and threw off her top. She didn't seem to notice that she was the only acting in this little show of theirs. She quickly grabbed his hands and pushed them against her breasts, rubbing them all over her light pink bra. She began grinding herself into Troy as she had him play with her bra. She suddenly let go of Troy's hands and reached behind her back, and within seconds, her bra was off, and her full breasts were laying open for Troy to enjoy. But he wasn't enjoying them. He wasn't enjoying any of this. He didn't have a single thought going through his mind at this point, except maybe 'Why is she doing this…'

Gabriella once again thrust his hands onto her now exposed breasts. She made his fingers play with her nipple and squeeze the round orbs on her chest. Once she felt he had gotten the hang of it, she removed on of her hands and put it behind her. This time instead of using it on herself, she placed the hand on Troy's pants. There was no belt to obstruct her, only a button and a zipper, both of which she easily did away with. Before he could realize it, Troy had Gabriella's hand down his pants, trying to excite him. It was at this point that he began to react to what was happening to him. At the same time, Gabriella realized that after all this time Troy was not hard. She tried again to stroke him with her one hand inside his pants, but she got no response. So she got off of him.

Troy tried to use this opportunity to get away, or at least explain. But he was cut off by Gabriella's mouth on his again. "Don't worry honey. You're just nervous. I can help with that." And then Gabriella was kneeling slowly down beside the bed, taking Troy's pants off and throwing them to the other side of the room. Troy was now completely naked, and more than embarrassed about what was going on. But before he could react, Gabriella had restarted her attempt to make him hard. She stroked his soft penis a few times before going down on him. Troy felt her hands playing with his balls as her mouth went up and down his nervous cock.

No matter how good Gabriella may have been, she could never get him more than half hard. And as soon as she took her mouth off of him and looked up at him with that fake made-up face, he immediately lost any rigidity he had had. Getting aggravated, Gabriella made one last attempt. She began to give Troy a lap dance, dancing seductively around him and on top of him. The she stood in front of him and slowly and sexily removed her only remaining piece of clothing. And as she stood in front of her boyfriend in her beautiful nudity, she noticed something. Not only was Troy not hard, but he was not even looking at her.

The next thing Troy knew, he was hit in the face with his pants and underwear. "Here" Gabriella spat out coldly. "You don't know what you're gonna be missing out on."

As Troy began to get redressed, embarrassed past the point of blushing, now he was just quietly there. As he was putting his shirt on, he hear Gabriella mumble.

"Danny never had any trouble getting it up."

Troy whipped his head around when he heard the other boy's name. "What!?"

"I said," Gabriella stood up and walked slowly over to him, "Danny never had any trouble. Big. Boy" She punctuated the last two words with a poke on the chest.

"Who's Danny?" Troy asked. This may have been the most awkward night of his life, but he could still get angry.

"Oh, no one. Just a Real man." She glared at him.

"Gabby… are you saying—"

"That at that camp I went to. There was the hot little Junior. And HE, could get. It. Up."

"Gabby…"

"What did you expect. I was gone for almost two months. One thing led to another. And then those things led to the bedroom. And then—" But she stopped talking when Troy suddenly spun and punched the wall behind him.

"You fucking CHEATED on me!" yelled Troy. "With some kid you don't even KNOW!" Gabriella just stood there smugly standing in the center of the room.

"And it was better than you could ever imagine." She said with a smile.

Troy just stood there, staring. This was not the same girl he has asked out on a date 6 months ago. The same girl he sang with at the auditions. "We're over." He said flatly.

"Well duh. Do you think I'm gonna stay with a guy I can't fuck 'cause he such a fucking wimp." Troy just stood there, amazed. "I need a real man, with a real dick." Sh turned around and saw that he was still standing there. "Well. Get the FUCK OUT!" Gabriella suddenly turned violent and started hitting him.

She chased him all the way down to the front door and didn't stop until he was out the door.

"Gabby… what happened to you?" he asked morosely. His anger had left him.

For a split second, Troy almost thought he saw a bit of sadness in her eyes. But then it was covered up by the malicious smirk and the door was slammed in his face.

8:43 pm

Troy sat in his car in front of his house. He had been there for a good 15 minutes. He had gone to the burger place down the street for dinner, and had just sat there staring blankly at the wall as he ate his food. He now sat in his car wearing the same expression. His music was blearing loudly on the car stereo, and the lights were on, making it hard to see into the darkness outside. Troy leaned back onto his headrest and rubbed his eyes.

Suddenly there was a knock on his window. He looked next to him, and to his surprise, saw the face of Ryan Evans. The boy looked a little worried, so Troy took the keys out of the ignition, and got out of the car.

"Are you OK?" Asked the blonde boy in front of him. He sounded as if he truly cared.

"It's been a really… long day." Troy said with a sigh.

"What happened?" asked Ryan, putting his hand on Troy's shoulder.

"I… I don't know." Troy sputtered out. He felt Ryan's hand on his shoulder. It felt warm in the cold night.

"Did something happen with—"

"Gabriella. We… broke up." Troy didn't know why he was telling Ryan these things. It wasn't like they were friends. But he wasn't going to stop. It felt good.

"Do you… ya' know, wanna talk about it?"

"She's not the same girl she used to be." Troy said and for the first time looked at Ryan. Ryan looked at him directly in the eyes. He was wearing a white undershirt and jeans, just like when Troy had seen him a few days ago. His hair was longer than it had been before summer, and it was mussed up, instead of gelled into place.

"You're no wearing a hat" Troy mused. He smirked at Ryan's confused face. He wondered if he had changed any over the summer.

" Wha… oh. Heh. Yeah I guess I'm not." Ryan smiled at Troy. "Well, if you wanna talk about it. Looks like we're neighbors now."

"Yeah… thanks." Troy said, still with a small smirk.

Ryan smiled one more time, and then shook Troy's shoulders. "You look like you're about to fall asleep. Go inside."

"Can't. Parents went to a party, and I," Troy lifted his keychain and jingled it, "forgot my key." He smiled again.

"So you're just gonna wait here for…"

"About another hour."

"Then I'll wait with you" Ryan said with a smile.

"Wha… no! You don't have to do that! Go back to your house. You don't have to stay out here with me." Troy was confused by the sudden generosity.

"Anything is better than going back there." He looked over his shoulder. "'Pay's having a meltdown cause she can't find her pink pumps. I had to get out of there." Ryan turned back around and smiled. "Even after all these years, I can't stand to be around her when she's like this." He laughed a little and Troy smiled too.

The two boys walked over to Troy's porch and sat on the steps. There was an awkward silence at first. Actually, there was an awkward silence for a good 15 minutes interspersed by attempts at conversation. But eventually the two boys began talking about one of their old teachers they hated. By the time Mr. and Mrs. Bolton arrived home, Troy and Ryan were laughing at a joke neither one could remember.

Ryan got up still laughing and said good bye to Troy as he turned around to go back to the big house. "Thanks" said Troy, smiling at the kid he had never before spent more than 5 minutes with. Ryan smiled.

"Any time" and then he had turned around and was off to the house looming in the short distance.

10:06 pm

As soon as Troy got back up to his room he got on Facebook and requested Ryan Evans as a friend. On an afterthought he clicked onto Gabriella's profile. Maybe it was to try to talk, or perhaps to remove her as a friend. But if it was the second, she had already beaten him to it. Gabriella had already removed him as a friend.

As he sat there staring at the computer screen, Troy had the distinct feeling that he wasn't as upset as he should have been.

A/N: I hope you liked that. Hopefully you felt as awkward reading the sex section as Troy did experiencing it. That was my goal but it was harder to do than I thought it would be. PLEASE tell me what you think of it so far. That means REVIEW. It only takes a few seconds a few clicks. So help a starving writer and feed him some reviews.


	4. Senior Beginnings

A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed, and who added this story as a fav

A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed, and who added this story as a fav. I'm so glad you like it. I hope you like the rest of it cause its really helping me put off my research paper. In this chapter things finally get become a little happier for Troy. So I hope you guys like it.

**Senior Beginnings**

August 2, 11:14 am

Troy was standing in his driveway, holding a basketball, looking up at the rim in front of him. He took a few step back, and then he sped towards the basket, bouncing the ball in front of him. As he neared the red loop looming above him, he pushed off with his right leg and soared through the air. His hands brought the ball up to just over the rim and brought it down into the center of the rim. But apparently he was not having a good day. For the seventeenth time today, the ball bounced out of the rim and bounced down the driveway.

Troy sighed and jogged down the drive to get the ball. Ever since that night with Gabby, Troy hadn't made a single shot. No dunks, o free throw shots, not even any lay-ups. He had yet to get to the point of using a ladder but he was getting there. "What is wrong with me? Gotta get back in the game."

He was awoken from his thoughts by the sudden pair of shoes which had stopped his basketball's rolling. He followed the legs up to the familiar face of his new neighbor, standing there with a contented smirk. "Want someone to play with?"

"Uh… sure." Troy said, standing there slightly confused.

Ryan bent down and picked up the bright orange ball, and threw it at Troy's chest. "Come on. First one to 21 wins." And then he ran past Troy to begin guarding the basket.

Needless to say… Troy was a little confused. Was this the same Ryan Evans he had been going to school with since 6th grade? The Drama King of East High? The brother of the Ice Queen? In all the years Troy had known of Ryan, he had never known him to play any sports. When they had been in the same freshman PE class, Ryan had been the kid who stood in the corner talking to the girls. But there he was, standing in front of the basket, with an expectant look on his face.

"Might as well…"

12:26 pm

Troy and Ryan sat in the Bolton kitchen. In front of them was a half empty package of Oreos ©, two root beers, and an almost empty bag of chips. The basketball game had ended almost an hour ago, but Troy and Ryan had decided to go inside and hang out. For the first two minutes of the game, Ryan was the only one scoring. But after having the ball bounce of the rim and backboard an uncountable number of times, Troy eventually got back into his groove. Troy won, of course, but it wasn't as easy as he thought it would be.

At the moment, both boys were snacking on the food in front of them, talking about another one of their mutual subjects of dislike: Sharpay.

"I just don't know how you live with her, dude" said Troy taking a swig of his soda.

"She's not bad _all_ the time. It's just when she doesn't get her way…" mumbled Ryan in a pathetic attempt to defend his sister.

"Ryan… come on, I saw how she was acting that day when you guys were moving in. She looked like she was about to kill that guy" Troy said laughing.

"It's times like that when I usually just go for a walk or something. I can't stand being in the same house as her" Ryan said dramatically.

"Well the next time that happens, feel free to come over here for a while. Hell, if you guys had moved in earlier I might not have had such a crappy summer" He said jumping up to sit on the counter.

"Oh, come on, it couldn't have been _that_ bad."

"You try spending all summer completely alone. No one around. I got a job for a while, but got fired."

"Well, I had to spend the entire summer at our family resort."

"Oh… sounds _soooo_ horrible" Troy jested.

"Believe me, spending all summer in a place where all there is to do is sit by the pool or play golf… with my sister. It gets boring… and really aggravating."

"At least you had someone to spend time with."

"Yeah… someone who yells when you're late, or when you disagree, or when your happy…"

"Sheesh. Sounds bad."

"You're telling me."

"But school starts soon." Troy began to drift off and imagine what senior year would be like.

"Yeah and until then, at least we have each other." Ryan quickly covered his mouth.

Troy snapped out of his daydream. "Wha? Did you say something?"

"Just that… we might as well hang out till then." Ryan covered quickly.

"Sounds good to me. Maybe I won't mind the rest of the summer." Troy grinned and he and Ryan went to watch TV.

August 6, 11:37 pm

Troy and Ryan sat in front of Troy's TV, watching and old scary movie. It was a slasher flick, filled with build up music, and cliché situations. But the blood almost looked real, and both boys were frightened by the movie. Ryan let out a big yawn, followed by a big yelp as a door slammed in the movie.

They had just spent their fifth consecutive day hanging out. Every day they had spent doing something at Troy's house. Usually they just ended up talking or watching TV. They had spent one day attempting to play video games, but Troy's competitive side came out. So they went back to watching TV.

Tonight was the night before the last day of summer, so they were celebrating. They had finished a few hours of TV, a pizza, a bottle of soda, and a funny movie. The slasher movie had been a random pick by Ryan, who was currently cowering on the couch. As the serial killer once again popped out from around the wall and began chasing the token blonde girl, Ryan grabbed the pillow from his side and put it over his head, squishing into the smallest space possible. As the frightening music began building in volume and fervency, Ryan peeked out from the side of the pillow; just in time to see the killer's shadow plunge a pointy shadow knife into the well endowed chest of a shadow girl.

Ryan let out what could only be described as a meep, and burrowed his head farther into the couch, which suddenly turned out to be Troy's shoulder

Ryan didn't seem to notice that his head was now on Troy's arm. Troy didn't really notice it either. He spent the rest of the movie on edge as the killer proceeded to kill everyone but the witty brunette girl. It wasn't until the credits that he noticed Ryan still had his head on his shoulder. He looked over at the blonde head on his shoulder, not really knowing what to do. He attempted to slowly place his hand on Ryan's shoulder and shake him to give him a heads up. But when he shook Ryan gently and got no response, he noticed a deep rhythmic breathing. He noticed that Ryan had stopped shaking and no longer seemed to be cowering. He looked over at the blonde a little closer and noticed his eyes were closed and his face was calm. He was asleep.

Troy didn't really know what to do, so he let the boy sleep for a little bit. Troy tried to relax and go back to watching TV, but he couldn't stop thinking about Ryan on his shoulder. The place where Ryan's cheek touched his shoulder felt warm and comfortable, but he couldn't calm his mind down.

After about 30 minutes, Ryan shifted in his sleep and ended up leaning on the other side of the couch. Troy grabbed a blanket and put it over Ryan, and then went up to his room to grab a pillow and sheet. He brought them back down and set up a little bed on the floor. He would have gone to sleep in his room but he didn't want Ryan to feel awkward when he woke up.

August 8, 6:45 am

Troy stood in front of his mirror looking at his reflection to see if there was anything he needed to fix or conceal. Today was the first day of his senior year, and he was determined to make it a good time.

A/N: so I hope you guys like it. There are the little beginnings of a little something. It will get to be more next chapter. But if you like it I need some reviews so that I know it. Or else I'll feel unwanted. So REVIEW. If you don't you are evil.


	5. Day Number 1

A/N: I know there are a lot more of you who have read this thing and have not reviewed

A/N: I know there are a lot more of you who have read this thing and have not reviewed. It really only takes a minute. Then you can leave and go read that lemon you've been looking for so you can get your rocks off. Now REVIEW. (Thank you to those who have. I love your support)

**Day Number 1**

August 8, 7:30 am

Today was not looking like it was going to be a good day. Troy had gotten stuck behind every red light, traffic jam, and crossing guard on his way to school. His senior parking space was taken and he had to park as far away from the school as humanly possible. He hadn't gotten to relax before class began, like he liked to do. And he couldn't find any of his friends before his first class, which happened to be math. His least favorite. His locker had refused to open and was nowhere near any of the normal kids he hung out with, or any of his classes. He was actually beginning to miss the summer.

As he walked into the dreaded classroom. He looked around and saw that he was the first one into the room, so he made his way to a prime seat in the back of the classroom and put his head down.

He didn't lift it back up again until the class was 15 minutes done, and only because he felt something hit his head. He looked around and saw a crumpled ball of paper on the floor. He looked around and saw that the teacher was already going on that familiar first day of the year expectation speech. He couldn't tell who had thrown the ball of paper, but no one was looking at him. Within seconds the paper was in his hands; but when he opened it up, there was nothing inside it. It was just a piece of paper.

Troy put down his head again and didn't wake up this time until the bell rang.

10:15 am

This was the first class Troy had with someone he knew. So far, he hadn't seen any of his friends, and he felt like it was summer all over again. But now he had a class he KNEW he had a friend in: Ryan.

Drama class was, of course, the homestead of the Evans boy. By the time Troy had walked in, Ryan had already grabbed a seat at the front of the class. But that wasn't the first thing Troy noticed of his friend. What he did notice was that Ryan was once again wearing a hat with a matching outfit. Troy would have sat near the boy but that part of the class was already filled; and as soon as he got in the room, Sharpay suddenly decided she needed all of Ryan's attention, meaning Ryan didn't respond when Troy gave him a wave.

But soon Troy was being yelled at by an over dramatic Mrs. Darbus, and class had begun.

3:03 pm

Troy stood in front of his locker, aggravated beyond belief. The only class he had with any of his friends was drama with Ryan, and he hadn't gotten to talk to him today. He looked inside his locker and contemplated his books with disbelief. Almost every class had given him a good hour of homework to do. They didn't care if it was his first day of senior year, they were already acting like they were in the crunch for exams. "God damnit—."

"EEEEE! What is this THING in my locker!" Troy heard a familiar scream of disgust. Sharpay Evans. But that meant that her locker was near his. Which meant Ryan's locker was too. In four years at this high school the Evans twins' lockers had always been right next to each other; there was no reason to think that would change now.

Sure enough, as Troy rounded the corner, the first thing he saw was Ryan Evans attempting to calm down his infuriated sister, who was currently pointing at a very frightened looking roach. Before Troy could speak, she ran off down the hall, screaming about janitors, cleanliness, and some choice swear words.

Troy stood there laughing, as he waited for Ryan to turn around and see him. But when Ryan finally did notice him, he finally felt like the day hadn't been so bad. Ryan smiled at him and walked over to the laughing brunette. "So how has your day been?" Ryan asked with a smile.

Troy groaned in response.

"It couldn't have been _that_ bad." Ryan punched him in the shoulder.

"You're the first person I've talked to all day" said Troy. "I don't have classes with anyone! Except for drama with you."  
"Oh yeah… I didn't see you today. Did you go to class?"

"Yes, but I guess you didn't hear me or something. You were probably distracted by you sis—"

"Ryan! What are you doing? You're supposed talking to Darbus with me. What are you doing talking to Golden Boy here?" Sharpay glared at Troy.

"'Pay, what are you talking about? You just ran off after a janitor, I was just—"

"Come on!" Sharpay grabbed Ryan's wrist and started to pull him away. "We have to go talk to Darbus about the first musical of the year." And she pulled Ryan off into a direction which was completely opposite of Darbus' room. As she pulled him off, Ryan gave Troy a look of sorrow, but then Sharpay yanked his arm, and all Troy could see was his bright, colorful hat.

3:49 pm

Troy sat on the bench in the locker room, dressed to play basketball. He had passed the rest of the team on their way out, but no one had even treated him like he existed. He knew this wasn't a real team practice – the season was too far away – but they all usually played after almost every day; that was how they were so good. By the time Troy picked himself up and got to the court, all the other guys had separated into teams and started playing.

"Hey, guys, which team should I join?" Troy asked expectantly. But there was no response.

"Hey, guys?" He tried to walk into the middle of the game, but the ball was just passed around him. Confused and aggravated, he reached out and grabbed the first person he could. It happened to be Chad.

"Yo, dude, what's going on? Why is everyone ignoring me?"

"Why the fuck do you think, bastard" Chad spat the words into Troy's face.

"What the fuck?! What the fuck are you talking about Chad?" The rest of the team had circled around the two boys.

"Gabby told us what you did to her." Chad glared at his captain.

"What?" Troy was confused. What did he do?

"Did you think no one would find out the way you dumped her. Jackass. I thought you were better than that. How could you just leave her, just because YOU couldn't satisfy your fucking urges with her."

"Wha—"

"She told us all, how you convinced her to have sex with her, and then broke up with her when it wasn't 'good enough for you'"

"Chad, that's not what happened" Troy cried out desperately.

"Yeah right" Chad turned around and began to walk away.

Troy grabbed Chad on the shoulder and spun him to look him in the face. "Hear me out! She tried to have sex with me! I didn't want it! She CHEATED on me!"

"Yeah right. _Gabby? _Troy. Gabby would never do that." And then he and the rest of the team walked away. There was no remorse in their eyes.

Troy had no choice but to leave. He went back to change in the locker room and then walked out to his car. It was essentially the only one by this point; everyone had gotten out of the hell that is school as soon as possible. But by the time he had gotten within 50 feet he noticed something was wrong.

He ran towards his car only to find that it had been keyed, the tires had been slashed, and the words bastard and jerk had been spray-painted on the sides. He could recognize Chad and Jason's writing in the paint from the time they had graffitied West High's outdoor basketball court. There was no way he could drive home.

He called AAA but they said it would be an hour before they got there, so he sat and waited. He put his head in his hands, and let out a really big sigh. Suddenly he let out a loud scream and punched his car in frustration. How could this have happened. How could ALL his friends have believed her. He let out another loud scream that echoed into nothingness.

He had sat there for almost 40 minutes when a bright red corvette pulled in front of him. Troy didn't even look up to see who had come to see him. It wasn't until he heard someone sit down next to him that he lifted his head from his knees. Beside him sat Ryan, dressed in only an under shirt and the pants he had been wearing earlier.

"What happened?" Asked Ryan, looking behind him at the battered car.

Troy told him about the basketball team, and Gabriella. When he finished he put his head in his hands once again. He felt an arm being put around his shoulders, and he once again felt the warmth that seemed to come with Ryan's touch.

"They'll find out the truth soon, then they'll realize how stupid they were. Don't worry, they'll come around." Ryan squeezed Troy's shoulder reassuringly. Troy smiled at Ryan, and was met with a big bright Evan's smile.

Ryan stayed with Troy until the AAA truck came and hour and a half later. He gave Troy a ride home too, so that he wouldn't have to ride with the sketchy truck driver. Ryan even told Troy that he could give him a ride to school every day. Troy didn't need to worry about Sharpay; she had her own car to drive.

"You guys are wayyy to rich" Troy joked, in a much better mood after talking to Ryan. Ryan punched him in the arm, and then unlocked the door so he could go to his house. The AAA truck arrive a few minutes later, and Troy had to explain to his parents what had happened, without answering the question of why. It was a very bad beginning to what was supposed to be the best year of his life. But it wasn't that bad, when Troy thought about it.

August 9, 6:47 am

Ryan exited his bathroom, after taking his morning shower, with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist.

"I've laid out your clothes for today." Ryan jumped when he heard the sound of Sharpay's voice. She was sitting on his bed, filing her bright pink nails.

"Sharpay, how many times do I have to tell you that I can choose my own clothes?" groaned Ryan. She had been deciding what he would wear in public ever since his mom stopped.

"I've _seen_ what you choose to wear when I let you. You look like an idiot in a shirt and jeans. I will not be seen with a brother who doesn't wear the most stylish of clothes. You can't even match for yourself!" Sharpay used her nail filer to point to the outfit lying on the bed: a light blue shirt, jeans, and a blue hat. Ryan hated hats. But Sharpay seemed to feel that it was necessary with every outfit.

Ryan shooed Sharpay out of the room so that he could grudgingly put on the clothes. He didn't used to mind, but he was getting more and more annoyed by Sharpay's attempt to control his life. But wearing the outfit was safer than dealing with Sharpay's wrath. As he exited his room and grabbed an apple for breakfast, his sister came down stairs wearing a blue dress. 'I can't believe she's making me match with her' Ryan though to himself. He rolled his eyes and picked up his bag to go to his car and get Troy. But Sharpay grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"Oh, and Ryan. I don't want you talking with Golden Boy any more. He ruined our reputations last year, and I don't want to be associated with that." And then she went back to drinking her protein slim shake.

6:57 am

Ryan pulled up in front of Troy's house, and within a minute the two boys were on their way to school. Apparently Ryan's good luck was canceling out Troy's bad, because they got to school with plenty of time, which they spent listening to music in Ryan's car. Suddenly, Ryan jumped up from his seat, like he had just thought of something.

"Sorry Troy, but I have to go talk to the Dean about my schedule. I'll see you later, OK!" and then Ryan was gone, leaving Troy rather confused, sitting in his car.

A/N: OK I know that I didn't get the Ryan and Troy together yet, but I promise that if its not the next chapter, it will be the one after that. Tell me what you thought of it this time. PLEASE REVIEW


	6. New Beginnings

A/N: I really appreciate those of you who have reviewed

A/N: I really appreciate those of you who have reviewed. Anyone who is reluctant to do so can talk to those who have… they will tell you it only takes a few seconds. And I will love you forever. Which, of course, is reason enough to do it. I'm thinking this might just be the chapter when everything gets started. So I hope you like it.

**A New Beginning**

August 9, 12:08 pm

Troy sat at his newly chosen lunch table staring amazedly at the boy sitting across from him. Sure, one day ago, Ryan was only in one of his classes, but now, the blonde boy sat in front of him chatting happily while poking timidly at the cafeteria food. When Troy had arrived in his first period class and had been surprised to find an eager looking Ryan sitting in the back of the room waiting for him. One hour later, he was again surprised to find that Ryan was accompanying him as well. Troy didn't even know Ryan wanted to take economics. After two straight hours of the two boys talking in the back of classrooms, Ryan reluctantly parted ways from Troy for third period. Troy's physics class was once again spent bored and lonely.

The same was true for fourth, but Troy had been happy to find and eager blonde boy waiting for him at the entrance of the cafeteria. As Troy sat, listening to Ryan controlling the conversation, he looked around. The room was filled mostly with juniors and freshman. He could only see a few seniors other than Ryan and himself. It was then that Troy noticed that all the seniors had gathered around one table. He was surprised that he hadn't noticed them all the day before.

He tried to look to see who was in the center of the small mass of seniors, while not alerting Ryan to the fact that he was barely paying attention. Unfortunately, there were too many kids for him to see. So he went back to talking to Ryan. They were talking about movies and music; things that normal kids talked about. Troy had forgotten about the other seniors, and happily talked to his new, and apparently only, friend. It wasn't until lunch was almost over and Troy was forced to walk near the group of seniors to drop off his tray that he saw what they were all doing.

In the center of about 30 seniors sat a short, slightly Hispanic looking girl whom Troy had once known very well. She had once again put on her normal outfits, with less makeup, and an innocent face. She was talking so that anyone who wanted could hear her, and for the moment, that included Troy.

"…and then, after he finally finished he got off me _sniff_ he turned around with this smirk on his face _sniff_ and then he said 'wasn't very good, bitch' and then started putting on clothes, and then I started crying _sniff_ and he just laughed and said 'if your gonna cry about it we're over bitch. You're not a good enough fuck to deal with that drama' and then he left." Troy was amazed at what he heard, but within seconds he heard comforting words coming from the crowd around her.

"It's okay honey."

"He's just a jackass."

"I can't believe he would do that to you!"

"And to think I used to think he was such a nice guy."

"He'll get what's coming to him."

But as the comments became less comforting and more violent, Troy quickly escaped before anyone noticed he was there. If Gabby was telling everyone this story, then he was in big trouble. Big Trouble.

10:23

Troy sat in drama class recounting to Ryan everything he could remember of Gabriella's story. When he finished, Ryan sat in his seat staring at Troy. Troy looked around the room in the silence and noticed Sharpay glaring at him and maybe Ryan.

"I can't believe everyone is believing her…" Ryan whispered as Darbus droned on about acting.

"I know, but she's turned everyone against me. There's no way I can get them back now." Troy sighed and rubbed his hands with his eyes.

"The can't ALL have believed her." Ryan looked exasperated.

"But they did. You're the only one who will talk to me anymore. Some friends they turned out to be." Troy sat back in his chair, exasperated.

"Well then get new friends." Ryan said matter-of-factly.

"Wha… where am I gonna find new friends?"

"Try new things. Now that you don't have your old friends holding you back, you can do whatever you want? It'll be a lot easier than trying out for the musical last year." Ryan smiled sneakily at Troy. "At the risk of sounding cliché, now you can try to become whoever you really want to be. Take advantage of the situation. You can do anything you want to!" Ryan giggled.

Troy leaned back in his chair and smirked. "You're such a dork, Ryan." But his smile told Ryan that he was thinking about it.

August 20, 3:27 pm

Over the past week, Troy had been taking Ryan's advice. If only to fill the time which had previously filled with unofficial basketball practices. Unfortunately he still had no idea what it was he truly wanted to do. Sure, he ended up doing some more drama with Ryan, but there was still a little bit of emptiness which was yet to be filled. Over the past week he had successfully found a small group of kids who didn't believe Gabriella's stories. There were two girls, Sarah and Katie, who had been Golden Boy super fans over the last three years, and who had refused to believe Gabby. There was Kelsi, who had been ecstatic to find out Gabby's stories were lies. A skater boy who played the cello, who Troy was told to call "Cel" (pronounce Chell (A hard 'ch' sound)). And, of course, there was Ryan, who spent the majority of his time with Troy.

In fact Ryan and Troy spent almost all their time with each other, between classes, drives to and from school, their group of friends, and the fact that Ryan usually waited with Troy for his parents to come home. Over the short amount of time, they had become very good friends. Not just friends of necessity, Troy truly enjoyed spending his time with Ryan. He was surprised at how different Ryan was than the picture he had had of him in his head. He had always imagined Ryan would be much more girly. He expected to have hours of boring conversations about fashion, gossip, and, of course, hats. But other than the occasional mention of a Broadway show, his conversations were surprisingly normal. And, surprisingly, he removed his hats as soon as school had ended.

Troy noticed, during the not infrequent times they had basketball, that Ryan was not weak in any way shape or form. His thin arms body and legs were surprisingly strong. There were a good number of times that Ryan had thrown Troy off him when the two wrestled for the ball. If the boy had had any actual skill to speak of, his strength would probably have caused him to beat Troy in numerous games.

August 21, 4:16

As Troy and Ryan sat in Troy's kitchen, spending another day together, Troy accidentally spilled his entire soda on Ryan's clothes. After a few minutes of bumbled apologies and wiping at Ryan's shirt and pants, Troy finally decided to pull the baffled blond up the stairs to his room.

He dug through his closet and finally found a shirt and pair of shorts from sophomore year. He was about as slim as Ryan back then, before he began seriously building muscle. He threw Ryan the change of clothes along with a few more apologies.

"You don't have to give me any clothes Troy… it's just soda." Ryan sniffed the shirt to see if it was clean.

"Just put in on Ryan. Or you'll get all sticky. And don't worry it's clean, I haven't worn it in a few years." Troy laughed and waited for Ryan to begin changing.

"Okay… if you insist." And then Ryan placed the change on Troy's bed, and began to change.

He quickly took off his shirt and shorts and stood in Troy's room in only his green plaid boxers. He didn't seem to notice that Troy was still watching him. His slim frame was revealed to be covered in lean muscle. He didn't have the washboard abs of a six pack, but his extremely lean torso showed almost no fat. Troy was surprised to see a V dipping down his waist into his underwear. His thin legs showed an entertainingly stark bathing suit tan line, in strong contrast with the tan that covered the rest of his legs, and also his arms and torso. As Ryan was putting on the pants, which fit him fine, Troy caught himself staring, and finally looked away. 'I'm surprised he doesn't have any girlfriends… he's pretty good—'

"So what do you wanna do now?' Ryan asked, now fully clothed.

"I dunno… You decide."

August 25, 3:57 pm

Troy was not having a good day. When he had woken up this morning, he was feeling the beginnings of a cold building up in his throat. The scratchy throat was soon forgotten as he gulped down scalding coffee to get to Ryan's car so he wouldn't be late. When he got to school, he was greeted with a wonderful surprise at his locker: a spray painted "JACKASS" greeted him in bold black letters. He had forgotten all his homework on his desk at home, and was chasticized by every teacher but Darbus. Not only that, but Cel, Katie, and Sarah were all sick, leaving Troy with only one of his new friends, even if it was his best one. Now he sat at a red light with Ryan, talking about his day.

"I'm sorry Troy, I know how tough the past few weeks have been for you." Ryan put his hand on Troy's shoulder and rubbed it for a second before beginning to drive.

"Thanks Ry, you've been a big help." Troy smiled at his friend. It seemed like nowadays, Ryan was the only person he smiled with. He sometimes wondered what it was about Ryan that made him so much fun to be around, but he could never quite figure it out.

"Maybe you just need to have some fun. Just do whatever you feel like." Ryan suggested

Troy agreed, but the thing was, the only thing he felt like doing was hang out with Ryan. He had spent so much time with the boy over the past few weeks, that he barely knew what to do otherwise. And Ryan had been spending more time after school with Troy, sometimes till late at night. He said it was to get away from Sharpay, but Troy felt that Ryan was almost as stuck on him as he was on Ryan.

'Stuck' Troy wondered. 'Is that the word? I've spent so much time with him, it feels almost unnatural to be away from him. I mean yeah, sure he's the only one who has stuck through with me through all of this, but he's so much fun to hang out with.' Troy suddenly noticed that Ryan was talking again.

"… parents are gone tonight, Sharpay's at a party, do you wanna hang out. The last time we watched movies all night was before school started."

"Uh… yeah… sure, I'd love to stay at your house tonight." Troy responded, surprised. In all the time he had been friends with Ryan, they had never gone into his house. Even though it was right across the street, they always hung out at Troy's.

"Cool!" Ryan smiled his white smile at Troy. "Come over as soon as you get your stuff."

Troy looked around and saw that he was at his house. He got out of the car and thanked Ryan for the ride. As Ryan drove off the short distance to his house, Troy went back into his thoughts.

'I don't know if stuck is the right word' he mused as he walked to his door. 'But this is definitely past the point of having fun hanging out.' And as weird as that sounded in his head, Troy was decidedly not frightened by that thought.

When he got inside his house, he quickly scribbled a note to his parents, grabbed a change of clothes, and walked across the street to Ryan's gigantic house.


	7. That's What It Is

A/N: thank you to those who have given a comment

A/N: thank you to those who have given a comment. I really do appreciate it, and if this site had messaging I would send you a personal message. So thank you again and please for the other hundred of you who read this and don't review. DO IT DAMNIT!!

**That's What It Is**

August 25, 4:47

Troy stood in Ryan's foyer, amazed. He was currently standing in a room which was probably the size of his house. He looked all around himself and saw what must have been the most beautiful house he had ever seen. The floor was covered in shining white marble, the walls were covered with a paintings and professional pictures. The ceiling (it was up there somewhere) had a beautiful design on it, with a window for the sun to come through; it was amazing.

He spun around again and looked at everything in the room. He was distracted this time by the blonde boy standing next to him. Ryan was watching Troy's amazed face, laughing his ass off. The boy stood there in only a bathing suit, nearly doubled over, laughing.

"What's so funny?" Troy asked defensively.

"No—nothing." Ryan smiled up at Troy. "It's just, you should have seen your face." Ryan had stopped laughing by now, and was smiling at the brunette beside him.

"Your house is… awesome!" Troy said, still amazed.

"Yeah yeah, come on. I figured we could go swimming." Ryan pulled Troy through other rooms of the beautiful house.

"Wait! Ryan! I don't have a bathing suit!" Troy tried to pull back against Ryan's tug, but was unable to stop the determined blonde.

"Then you can swim in your boxers. It's too hot to do anything else!" The next thing Troy knew, he was in front of a large, blue, cool pool. The Arizona heat was suddenly pressing upon him, wearing away his desire to remain dry.

"Fine… fine! Ryan. I'll go swimming." Ryan, now at the edge of the pool, looked up at him and smiled. Troy walked over to one of the pool chairs and pulled off his shirt. A dry breeze blew across the yard, and Troy could feel it play with his hair and his now bared chest. He heard a splash and turned around to see Ryan floating in the pool, looking at him expectantly.

"Come on! The water's fine!" Ryan continued to watch Troy as he tread the water.

Troy turned to the pool chair again, but he could still feel Ryan's eyes resting on his back. He undid his button and zipper and hooked his thumbs inside the waistline of shorts. He quickly pulled down the heavy cargo shorts and felt the breeze cooling his legs. He turned around and saw Ryan smiling at him.

"Hurry up, before I get a pruney." Ryan dove back under the water and swam to the other side of the large pool.

Standing there in just his boxers, Troy felt he had no choice but to join Ryan in the water. The breeze stopped and the dry heat once again pressed onto Troy. That was all Troy needed to get him to run and dive into the waiting water. The cool water felt refreshing on his hot skin, and when he came up from his jump he saw he was about 5 feet away from a smiling Ryan.

"Told you it'd feel good" Ryan teased.

"Yeah yeah" Troy said, swimming closer to Ryan.

But his procession towards the boy was cut short when a wall of water hit him in the face. By the time Troy had wiped the water out of his eyes, Ryan was no longer in front of him. Suddenly, another splash of water hit Troy from the left.

Troy immediately responded with a splash of him own. "You're going down Ryan!" He looked around the pool but didn't see the blonde head peaking up above the water. And then, Ryan was right in front him, only inches away from his face.

Troy stared at Ryan, who was breathing hard from holding his breath. Little droplets of water were running down him face, only to be blown away in a pant of warm breath. Neither boy moved. And then, Troy lunged forward. He grabbed onto Ryan's slim waist and then proceeded to pull him under the water. Troy began to wrestle with the wriggling Ryan as he held onto the boy. Ryan, realizing what was happening began to fight back. The boys surfaced, panting, and Troy smiled.

"Told you I'd get ya." And then he splashed Ryan.

In retaliation, Ryan jumped at Troy and pulled them both, once again, into the water. The two boys continued to wrestle in the water, alternating between splashing each other and pulling them down into the water. After a few minutes, Troy surfaced and heard Ryan calling out "Uncle! Uncle! You win!"

Troy laughed, panting. "That's right!"

"You are the master of the pool," Ryan said as he made his way over to the edge. "I'll go get us some towels."

Ryan disappeared inside the pool house, and Troy made his way over to the side. It wasn't until he tried to get out that he noticed he had a little problem. The close contact with Ryan had gotten him a little "excited". Troy looked down in the water and saw the prominent bulge in his boxers. He was about to get out of the pool and quickly throw on his shorts when Ryan came out of the pool house holding two towels.

"Come on Troy. Dry off and we can go get a snack inside." Ryan began to dry off his hair, watching Troy expectantly. "What are you waiting for?"

Troy didn't want Ryan to see his "situation", but Ryan just wasn't turning around. So he decided to bite the bullet and began to pull himself up out onto the side of the pool. Luckily, Ryan turned around just as Troy's waist came up over the edge. Troy quickly ran over to the pool chair and grabbed the towel, wrapping it around his waist. He watched Ryan as the boy dried off his stomach and arms, and as he continued to stare, he realized his bulge just wasn't going away.

He quickly turned around so that he could dry off the rest of his body without displaying his large erection to Ryan. When he had finished drying off the rest of his body, he turned around and saw Ryan staring at him.

"What do you wanna eat?" Ryan asked innocently.

"Um… why don't you just go pick some stuff out. I'll… uh… be there right after I put on my clothes." Troy tried to convince Ryan to leave with a smile, but the majority of his body was still suspiciously facing away from the other boy. Finally, Ryan seemed to give in, and made his way inside the massive house.

"OK, I'll get some snacks. The kitchen is right on the left."

Troy quickly finished drying off and threw on his shorts over is still damp boxers. He walked into the house as he put on his shirt, and began looking for the kitchen.

5:36

After snacking and talking for a little bit, the boys began to watch some movies in Ryan's room, which had a big screen TV, and was the size of Troy's living room. Halfway through _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_, Ryan ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut. When the movie and pizza ended about an hour later, the boys decided to try a comedy. It wasn't until they were halfway through _Animal House_ when all hell broke loose.

As the boys in the frat house once again began to lose their minds, Ryan felt something soft hit the side of his head. He heard a quiet giggling coming from his side. He turned and saw that Troy sat there looking at laughing quietly with a pillow in his hands. "You jackass!" Ryan pulled the pillow out from under him. "You're going down!"

The pillow fight that ensued was one of the ultimate pillow fights of all time. That's what happens when your in a room with over 20 pillows on a giant bed. Had they been girls, it would have been a straight man's wet dream. Within 5 minutes, goose down feathers had flown all over the room. Troy ran after Ryan wielding two pillows, swinging like a madman. Both boys had forgotten the movie and were laughing like crazy. Suddenly Troy tripped over his shoes, which he had taken off to jump on the bed. As he began to fall, he let out a yelp which caused Ryan to stop running and turn around. What he saw was not just a falling Troy, but a Troy who was falling directly onto him. As Troy fell to the floor, his momentum propelled him forward onto Ryan. The two boys fell onto the carpeted floor, Troy on top, in a tangled mess.

Once they had settled onto the ground, with neither boy in any immediate pain, Troy looked down into Ryan's face. For the second time in one day, their faces were just inches apart. Ryan's warm blue eyes looked into Troy's gray blue ones. Troy was holding himself so that he was barely hovering over Ryan's body. He looked over Ryan's face and saw no amount of worry, and just a little expectation. And for the second time that day, he moved forward. Only this time, it was gently, as he slowly moved his face down to press his lips against Ryan's in a soft kiss. His lips gently pressing against Ryan's, and he could feel Ryan's pressing into his. While he was kissing the boy beneath him, he was thinking, "So _that's_ what that feeling was."

When Troy lifted himself from the kiss, the first thing he saw was Ryan's slightly confused, but overall happy face. Then the reality of what just happened hit him, and the soft smile was wiped off his face.

"Oh, shit."


	8. Mornings

Mornings

A/N: To all my faithful readers I am really really sorry that I haven't updated in so long. You can blame my school and it's combination of papers and AP tests because they have taken away any time I could have for writing. In fact I should be studying right now. Oh well. So please take my sacrifice seriously and REVIEW.

A/N: This chapter is written in the viewpoint of Ryan and most of it is a flashback so bear with me.

**Mornings**

August 26, 8:13 am

Ryan opened his eyes when the sun hit him through his window. He looked at the clock, then around his still messy room. He couldn't even tell that the most important event so far in his life had happened right there just hours ago. He swung his legs out of the bed and walked over to stand by the window, letting the sun stream in on his pale face. Outside, it didn't even look like it had rained at all. It almost seemed like last night didn't happen. But Ryan knew it did. Because it was forever ingrained in his memory. He would never forget what happened.

_August 25, 8:36 pm_

_"Oh shit."_

_Ryan was snapped out of what could have been the happiest moment of his life by those two simple words. _

_The brunette who was still hovering above him no longer had a content smile. His face showed no happiness at all. And those eyes… the eyes that Ryan had fallen into as the got closer to his face, those eyes now showed only deep worry._

_Troy quickly rolled off Ryan's thin body and didn't stop moving until he was across the room, where he sat on Ryan's bed. He put his head in his hand, and soon Ryan could here the boy muttering to himself._

_"I'm… no. I can't…" The brunette just sat there, as if Ryan was not in the room with him. _

_There wasn't anything Ryan could think of to do. He knew what was going on in his side of this problem. He had realized that he liked Troy that first day they played basketball together. That day had confirmed what he always thought and everyone else seemed to already know: he was gay. Not only had he figured it out relatively late, but now he was going after what seemed like the grail: Troy. So he settled for friends. But now, this. Now it was Troy's job to figure out his side._

_The two boys sat like that for almost an hour. Ryan, sitting calmly on the floor, looked at Troy with immense trust in his still bright eyes. Unfortunately Troy did not see any of that trust: he was still looking at the ground, muttering to himself over what he should do, and what this meant._

_After almost an hour, Ryan began to feel his eyelids drooping. The emotional rollercoaster that had occurred today had worn him out long before it should have. _

_He had gotten so excited when they had gotten so close in the pool. Troy's body was so beautiful and the fact that it was so close to his had nearly caused him to faint. But Troy had not made a move there. Ryan fought hard to conceal his disappointment. Even though he knew he had almost no chance with Troy, he had been so close, and reality left a sour taste in his mouth. Then though the night was proceeding normally, its culmination had been anything but expected. Apparently, neither side was prepared for what happened. And now, here the two boys sat, one looking at the other, hoping for the response he knew probably wouldn't come; the other, looking at the ground._

_As Ryan made his way through the memories of the day he faded in and out of wakefulness, and soon his fallen head and steady breathing admitted sleep. _

_10:14 pm_

_Ryan snapped awake after reliving the kiss in a vivid dream. He could have sworn he had felt Troy press against his body once again, felt the soft warm lips of his crush pressing against his own. But it was a dream. _

_He expected, at least, to wake up to see Troy sitting in the same place he had been as the blonde had fallen asleep. But what he saw instead was one of his large pillows holding up a plain piece of printer paper. Ryan got up and walked over to his bed, already knowing what the paper would have written on it._

_There, written hurriedly in Troy's handwriting, nothing fancy or elegant, were the last words Ryan wanted to see, but the first words he expected to read:_

_'Ryan, I'm sorry, I just – I just need to think on my own for a while. I'll see you later. School. I guess.'_

_And with that simply written note, Ryan knew that his chances with Troy had been dashed against the rocks. Not only that, but he was just as sure that his friendship with Troy had been equally destroyed. They could not go back to the way things were before. And that meant that Ryan would no longer be able to be around Troy as much._

_Ryan sat down on his bed holding the note in his hands. Before long, the ink on the paper was smudged from little drops of tears. It was then that the rain started. It was a major storm system, and soon the sound of drops on the roof was loud enough to drown out the sounds of Ryan's tears._

August 26, 8:21 am

The memory of what happened in the night before once again brought Ryan to the verge of tears. But he stayed strong this time, allowing them to burn behind his eyes.

The blonde sighed again and looked into the beautiful sky. He ran his fingers through his hair. He had mostly stopped styling his hair once he began spending more time with Troy than his sister. The hair had been her idea too.

Every week he had taken some aspect of control away from her. The first week he had left most of the classes he had with her, so that he could spend more time with Troy. The second week, he had donated all of his shoes but three pairs, and most of his flip-flops, to a local charity. Sharpay now hadno way to match many of his outfits to shoes. The verbal beating which had accompanied that discovery had stalled Ryan a few days, before in the third week, he stopped styling his hair, and he began wearing jeans more. Sharpay made him hide that fact beneath a slew of hats. And so next week he had been planning to stop all the hats. Now, even after last night, even though he now needed to impress no one, he resolved that starting next week, he would no longer allow his sister to control his life in any way.

In his resolved thinking, he accidentally looked to long at the sun and had to squint away. "Nope" He muttered to himself. "Doesn't look like it rained at all."

And as Ryan thought of the storm that had passed in the night, he was once again thrown back to the memory of what had truly happened the night before.

_August 25, 11:47 pm_

_Ryan sat in his bed, unable to fall asleep. The rain, which usually soothed him at night, kept sleep away with it's strangely loud slamming against the roof. For the first time in his life, he regretted having a room directly under the roof. He imagined that the pool was flooded by now, along with the streets, and the garden he and his mom had so carefully planted a few weeks ago. _

_He looked at the clock and saw how close it was to midnight. He knew Sharpay would be getting home soon. She would no doubt make a fuss over her outfit getting wet, and he would have to put on a happy face and calm her down. But he didn't feel like helping her tonight. Just as he pictured his enraged and wet sister, he heard a slamming on the front door. Soon the musical doorbell was going and the knocking on the door was getting louder by the second. The cacophony was loud enough even to block out the sound of the rain._

"_Speak of the devil" Ryan said to himself. "She must have forgotten her lost her house key. Damnit." Ryan knew that if he let Sharpay in, she would immediately attack him for any reason he could think of. But the thought of what would happen if he left her outside was worse, even, than that. And so Ryan swung his legs out of his nice warm bed and made his way to the front door._

_The sound coming from the foyer was only growing in magnitude as he got closer. The knocks were becoming more hurried and the doorbell's music kept having to repeat from quick presses. _

"_I'm coming!" Ryan shouted, hoping to calm her down before the sounds woke the neighbors. "Shit! Stop it!" He shouted as the reached the door. But there was no way he could have been heard._

_As he began unlocking the locks and deadbolts on the door, the sound stopped. "Guess she heard that" he muttered to himself, as he undid the last lock. He opened the door, expecting to be bitched out by his sister for taking so long. Instead what he heard was a soft, warm, decidedly male voice._

"_I don't give a shit."_

_And before Ryan could comprehend who exactly was at the door, the soaked, tired, and crying brunette rushed forwards and kissed Ryan strongly, and determinedly, on the lips._

August 26, 8:25 am

Ryan smiled to himself. He heard a rustling behind him, and soon felt a new warmth as strong arms encircled him from behind. He felt a warm face nuzzle into the back of his neck. He felt happiness.

"You're awake." Ryan said with a smile.

"Shhh. You're warm." Troy mumbled tiredly into the nape of his neck. Ryan felt shivers run down his spine.

Nope, he didn't _need_ to impress anyone anymore.


	9. Disgusting?

A/N: OK guys, ladies, or somewhere in betweens, I know there are at least 215 more of you who are reading this story than revie

A/N: OK guys, ladies, or somewhere in betweens, I know there are at least 215 more of you who are reading this story than reviewing. For those of you who don't know, reviews are like points to me as a writer, the more I get, the better I feel, because it means you care enough to lose all 43 seconds of your time to review. So, in the end, all I am saying is REVIEW!!

READ MY NOTE!!

REVIEW!!

**Disgusting…?**

August 27, 9:57 pm

Troy sat in his room, on a Sunday night, before a Monday morning, after a hell of a weekend. He sat there, sitting in front of his computer, listening to his iTunes, playing with the hem of his shirt. The shirt by this point had gotten fairly dirty. Not from playing with it, but because he had barely taken it off since approximately Friday midnight. The shirt was warm, it was soft, it was form fitting. It was mostly white with a small logo from a nearby spa resort. By this point, it was a little grimy, but it was still so comfortable, and warm. And most of all, it felt like, smelt of, and reminded Troy of Ryan.

It was the shirt Ryan had given him that night, so he could get out of his wet clothes. It was the shirt he had slept in that night, as he slept next to Ryan. And now, it was the shirt he wore to remind himself that it hadn't all been a dream, and as he continued to play with the hem of the shirt, he was forced to smile at that memory.

An hour later, as he was settling into bed, he felt the shirt pressed against his muscular torso. Hugging himself closer into Ryan's pajama shirt, he felt his heart flutter and then settle, and he smiled.

August 28, 7:00 am

"Well you sure look happy this morning honey" said Troy's mother over a cup of coffee.

"Um… I guess" Troy responded grabbing an apple and hopping to the front door. But Ryan wasn't there yet. He sat down at his kitchen table and bit into the apple. He looked at his watch _7:02_. _Where is Ryan?_

He took another bite of his apple.

He took another look at his watch.

He took another bi—

_HONK._ Troy looked out of his kitchen window and saw the beacon of hope that was Ryan's bright beautiful new car.

OK, so Troy was a little clingy.

Troy ran out his front door, jumped the five steps to his front yard, and sprinted to the passenger seat. As he sat down on the leather seat, Ryan smiled at him with a knowing smile.

"Good morning" Troy said with a smirk.

"'Morning." Ryan smiled and looked forward, beginning to drive to school. Throughout most of the ride, the two boys shared small knowing smiles. When they reached their first red light, Troy looked out the window, still holding a smile on his face. Suddenly he felt a nudge in his left hand, and looked down to see an extra hand there, crawling its way into his. He looked at the blonde next to him and was once again met with a large, bright smile. The two boys continued to stare at each other, sharing a rather pleasant moment, until—_HONK_—they were woken out of their reverie. It was a green light.

They rode the rest of the way to school that way, holding each other's hands, in silence.

August 28, 12:13 pm

Ryan and Troy sat at their usual lunch table. Across from them sat Cel, Katie, and Sarah. None of them seemed to notice how closely the two boys were sitting to each other.

"So what did you guys do this weekend?" Sarah asked, looking inquisitively at the other four.

"My family went to the circus for my little sister" said Katie with an exasperated sigh. "It was soooooooo boring. The clowns weren't even funny! Ugh. How 'bout you guys?" she asked gesturing towards Ryan and Troy.

"Nothing" Ryan blurted out quickly.

"We just hung out" Troy finshed. He thought he could feel a tense silence after the quick answer. But if it had been there, it disappeared when Cel responded.

"I had a recital on Saturday… party on Sunday."

"_Cellll_ you should have told us you had a recital. I would have gone." Katie said, punching him in the shoulder. Sarah added in, pestering Cel to tell her when he would be playing in public again.

The next fifteen minutes were spent with Cel attempting to change the subject while the other four continued to pester him. Troy smiled to himself as the small group got back into the swing of lunchtime conversations. As Katie told a joke about the stupid clowns at the circus, Troy laughed and stood up to bring his tray back to the line. He purposefully avoided looking in the direction that he knew Gabriella was sitting. He was finally getting in a good mood, and he wasn't going to let anything ruin that today.

Troy went back to his seat at the table in the corner, next to the one person he could truly thank for that happiness, and he smiled.

September 23, 3:42 pm

Ryan and Troy sat in the rooftop garden. They sat on one of the three benches looking at the beautiful flowers surrounding them. Troy held Ryan's hand in his own, softly rubbing his thumb along the side of Ryan's hand. Ryan sighed contentedly and rested his head on Troy's strong shoulder. Troy leaned over and kissed the top of Ryan's head. At the same time, he took a strong whiff of Ryan's mango scented hair. He had gotten to love that smell over the past month. He had tried to find out what shampoo Ryan used to achieve that smell, but when he did succeed in sneaking into Ryan's bathroom, he was met with too many bottles to differentiate which one caused the beloved scent.

"Did you just smell me?" Ryan asked, removing his head from Troy's shoulder and looking at him incredulously.

"You smell like mangos" Troy said matter-of-factly.

"You are so weird" Ryan smirked and leaned in to snatch a quick kiss from Troy.

Neither boy had noticed that while Troy was smelling Ryan's fruit scented hair, the door to the rooftop garden quietly opened and four figures snuck through. They didn't hear the quiet giggles at the snippets of conversation after the sniff. They did, however, hear the loud gasp directly after the kiss, and they did turn. What they now noticed was that Kelsi, Katie, Sarah, and Cel were standing behind them holding what looked to be a bucket of water balloons.

"We, um, knew you guys came up here. We figured we would, uh, surprise… you…" Kelsi suttered out, still staring at the two boys who had yet to separate more than a few inches.

"Hey… guys…" Troy said into the silence.

Suddenly Cel broke out laughing, dropping his water balloons, which splattered on the ground. Troy and Ryan sat up and looked around Kelsi to stare at Cel. Suddenly Kelsi swore and started rooting through her purse.

"Umm… guys?" Ryan ventured, walking towards Kelsi. Troy followed behind him and made his way up to Cel. Now that he was closer, Troy could understand what Cel was saying in between gasps of laughter.

"I _gasp _knew it!" Troy look astounded.

"You knew?" Katie asked.

"Kelsi _gasp _you owe me _gasp_ five bucks."

"Kelsi!" Sarah yelled. "You knew too!?"

"Come on Kels, hand it over." Cel stated, holding out his hand expectantly. "Fair is fair."

Kelsi handed the bill over to Cel, right in front of the two boys who were apparently being bet on.

"Does anyone feel like filling us in?" Ryan asked, still standing near Kelsi.

"You guys have been spending so much time with each other" Kelsi started.

"So I figured you guys must have started going out by now." Cel put in.

"I though you guys wouldn't get together for at least another month. And thanks to you two, I just lost five bucks." Kelsi said, glaring.

Ryan heard Katie whispering to Sarah "I told you that's why he stopped wearing the hats." He smiled.

"So you guys don't care?" Ryan asked.

"Do you really think we would care?" Kelsi asked back.

"I was wondering when you guys were gonna tell us" Cel said, slapping Troy on the back.

"Yeah" Katie said. "We're happy for you." She spoke with a smile, but Troy and Ryan could detect a hint of sadness in her voice. _Probably at losing her chance with Troy_, Ryan thought. Suddenly Sarah was running up and giving him a hug, and as she was withdrawing Ryan heard her whisper into his ear "you better tell me _everything_ about him." And then she was back next to Katie with a smirk on her face.

The group walked back into the school in a mass of happiness. The group dispersed and Ryan and Troy made their way back to Ryan's car. Sure, Troy's car had been fixed for a long while now, but hell if he was going to miss another chance to be with Ryan. He was clingy, remember?

"We were sooo lucky" Ryan said, getting into the driver's seat.

"I know. We are."

September 25, 10:34 am

Ryan was walking back from the bathroom, deciding to take the long way to glean a few more minutes from the class. He noticed he was walking past Troy's locker when he got a wonderful idea. He quickly ran to his locker to grab a piece of paper, he pulled out a pen, and wrote a sappy love note signed love Ryan, and quickly shoved it into the slits of Troy's locker, then turned and ran before anyone saw.

September 25 10:46 am

Gabriella walked down the hall looking for Troy's locker. In her hand she held a very thick permanent marker, and she was contemplating various insults she could write on Troy's newly refurbished locker door. The hubbub around Troy had died down in the past month, and Gabby needed to revive it with a few reminders for the school to see. As she approached the locker she had memorized from prior vandalisms she noticed something sticking out of the vent slits. She grabbed the corner of a white square and realized it was a note, written in hurried scrawl.

"I wonder who is still leaving Troy little love notes." Gabby said to herself, reading the note. Suddenly a smile spread evilly over Gabriella's face, and she looked once more at the signature at the bottom. She quickly folded up the the piece of paper, shoving it in her pocket, and began walking back to class she had left just minutes ago. She had all she needed to keep the school angry at Troy right there in her pocket.


	10. The Reasons Why

A/N: OK, come on

A/N: OK, come on. The hits on this story are racking up but the reviews are not. As a C2 group has once said, the only standard we writers have to compare ourselves. So, for the sake of my lingering sanity, REVIEW. I like to win.

**The Reasons Why**

September 26, 4:13 pm

Troy and Ryan pulled up in front of Troy's house. Having just spent the last hour alone on the school's roof, it seemed to them that nothing could go wrong. Ryan found it suspicious that Troy hadn't brought up the note, but he was sure Troy had some sort of excuse.

"Do you wanna come inside?" Troy asked, smirking at the blonde.

"I can't. Don't you remember? I told you my grandparents were coming to town today. I have to go get ready." Ryan smiled sadly at his boyfriend.

"Oh yeah." Troy chuckled at himself. "Well then, one kiss before you go?" Troy smirked again and looked up at the thinner boy hopefully.

"Ugh. Fine." Ryan smiled and leaned in. Troy met him half way, and the two boys' lips met in a sweet quick kiss. Ryan pulled back to see Troy still leaning to the side with his eyes closed, smiling. He reached out and put his hand on Troy's shoulder, and then proceeded to shake his boyfriend violently. "Wake up lover boy. I gotta get going."

Troy pouted but reluctantly got out of the car. "Call me later when you're free." Troy called back as the car began to pull away.

"Sure!" Ryan called back, waving his hand through the window.

Troy turned around and made his way up to his house, smiling. He walked into the kitchen to see his mom making a spaghetti dinner.

"Hey honey." She said with a smile. "Your father and I are going to a little get together tonight. You don't mind, do you?" She looked up from the pot of home made sauce and turned to Troy.

"No Mom, no problem." Troy said, setting his backpack down on the floor.

"We probably won't be back 'till late, OK. You can eat this pasta. Whatever you don't finish just put in the fridge." She looked back down into the pot of cooking sauce.

"Don't worry Mom, I know the drill." Troy said as he walked up the stairs. "Have fun tonight!"

Lately his Mom and Dad had been going out a lot more. At least once a week they had some party, or gala, or dinner, or whatever to go to. They usually ended up coming home after midnight, or drunk… or both. '_Maybe they are just trying to get used to not having a kid in the house again, with me going to college next year and all' _Troy mused to himself. _'Oh shit! College. I need to get do some more shit on those applications.'_ Troy rushed into his room and saw the pile of half unfinished applications on his desk. _'Fuck! I got so distracted by Ryan… I haven't looked at these in weeks. Gotta get going on these, or I'll get stuck with them.'_

September 26, 7:43 pm

Troy sat at his desk bored as hell. His parents had left over an hour and a half ago, and having spent most of that time working on applications and his essay, he was incredibly bored. At the moment he was taking a long deserved break. "Fuck this sucks" he muttered to himself. He checked the display on his phone again, expecting a text message to have shown up from Ryan without his knowing. The screen was blank, just as it had been for the past three hours. He needed something to do to distract him from his boredom.

Troy walked downstairs to his kitchen to make himself dessert. He had eaten most of the pasta, so he decided to make something small. He left the kitchen five minutes later with a bowl containing three scoops of vanilla ice-cream, covered in chocolate sauce, marshmallows, caramel, and a few maraschino cherries. It was a light snack.

He turned on the TV and began to eat his sweet treat. Forty-five minutes and halfway through an episode of Mythbusters later, Troy sat with a bowl of half melted, half eaten ice-cream melting on the table in front of him. Suddenly he was awoken from his infatuation with the TV screen by a loud knocking.

"Ryan?" Troy called to the door. _'Maybe he decided to come over…'_ Troy headed towards his door. "Hello? Who's there?"

There wasn't any response from behind the door. Troy tried to look through the windows on the side of the door, but he couldn't see anyone. "Hello?" He grabbed the knob and opened up the door.

There, standing in all her newfound glory, was the last person Troy expected to show herself. On his front porch stood Gabriella.

September 26, 8:32 pm

Troy stood in his front hall, staring at the girl who had done everything in her power to ruin his life. Gabriella stood there smirking at Troy, holding a piece of paper in her hand. "Who was that you were calling for?"

"Um… Ry… an…"

"Yeah, that's what I thought. You've been spending a lot of time with him haven't you."

"Gabby… why are you here?" Troy asked, still standing in his front hallway. Gabby walked past him into the living room. Looking at the mess of dessert she sneered.

"Slob."

"Hey! What do you think you are doing? Why are you here, Gabby?"

"Oh just figured I'd give you a warning."

"A… what? What are you saying. What in the world do you think you are doing here! Do you have any idea what a hell you've put me through!" Troy ran into the living room.

Gabriella smirked. "I know. Anyway," she said dismissively, "the whole hatred of you is sorta dying down. So I came here to tell you what I'm planning to do next." She waved the small piece of paper in front of Troy.

"Wha—why would you do that?" Troy asked, flabbergasted.

"So that I could see your face when I give you," She handed the piece of paper over to him, "this."

Troy grabbed the paper from her manicured hand and glared at her as he unfolded it. Inside was a letter, addressed to him. But it wasn't in Gabriella's handwriting. As Troy began to read the note, he realized exactly what it was Gabriella was planning. Any joy he should have gotten from seeing 'love Ryan' was dashed when he realized Gabby had seen it first.

"How did you get this?" Troy glared at Gabriella once again.

"That's beside the point. So, you and Ryan? Who would have known?" Gabby said, smirking. "Surly Chad won't have. Or Jason. Sharpay, Taylor, Zeke. Or even, oh I don't know, Coach Bolton."

Troy stood there, in front of who could only be the devil incarnate, and gaped. He was at a loss.

"That's the face I was looking for." She said with a smirk, getting up from the couch she had once sat with Troy on. "Well, I've gotta go! See you on Monday!" She gave him a fake smile and made his way towards the door.

"Wait. Wait! Gabby! You can't do this!" Troy grabbed Gabby's shoulder and turned her around. "You have no idea what this will do to me. To Ryan!"

"Oh yes. I do. And please, like everyone doesn't already know about Ryan. I'm doing this to hurt you, and only you" she spat out, poking Troy in the chest.

"Gabby… why are you doing this? You used to be… so… different."

"You mean that small, innocent, genius, pussy of a girl I used to be?"

"Yes! I mean, no! I mean the innocent, sweet girl. Who used to be my girlfriend."

"That girl is gone, Troy. Deal with it."

"But—why?"

"Because you idiot. That was never who I really was." She turned to leave again, but Troy ran to the door before she could get there.

"You're not leaving until you tell me why you are like this."

"Why do you want to know?"

"I want to know why you have decided that I deserve to be tortured and hated by everyone in the school?" Troy growled at her.

"Look, I've got a party to get to. Let me out!" Gabby tried to push past Troy but he kept her from getting to the door.

"Then you'll have to be late." Troy was set in his decision to find out why she was doing this to him.

"Ugh. Fine. Not like it's going to change anything." She crossed her arms and glared at her ex. He glared at her expectantly.

"Well…"

"What do you want me to say? Do you want a story that'll help put you to sleep?" She looked disgusted at the situation.

"No. Gabby, I just want the truth."

"Look. This is who I am. This is who I always have been."

"No, it's not, Gabby. You were never like this until you went to that… camp."

"At that _camp_ I realized who I was, Troy."

"Did Dave, or whatever his name was, help you with that?" Troy glared at her.

"_Danny_ was just a sex toy. I just realized I could get what I want easier if I started being who I was. And look. I'm getting what I want right now. You're hated by everyone!" She smiled to herself then.

"But—Why! Why a bitch? Why me? Why… this?"

"Well first of all, I just told you _why_. I can what I want by being like this. Since I got back, I haven't had a single person question me. That's what you learn when you're in a camp full of geniuses. The only way you can get what you want is by kicking everything up a notch."

"Gabby… you don't have to be a bitch to get what you want!"

"Yeah? Well it sure makes things a whole lot easier." Gabriella made her way around an awestruck Troy. "Now let me out, I have to get going." She made her way to the door and opened it.

"Just… just tell me this. Why me?"

Gabby looked behind her and laughed. "Why not?"

And then she was gone.

A/N: OK, you guys have been asking for a reason as to why Gabby was a bitch. I know that it's not that good of a reason but I hope you like it. Now review. And I've decided that I won't update until I get a sufficient number of reviews. I'll decide sufficient. And it has to be from different people. Either that or until the story wells up inside me too much to handle. But I can wait a long time. So for the sake of my undying love. REVIEW!!


	11. The Weekend Part I

A/N: Thank you guys who reviewed I am really thankful I really am

A/N: Thank you guys who reviewed I am really thankful I really am. You guys passed the amount needed to make me want to write a long time ago but I hit a major writers block for a few days even though I knew exactly what I wanted to happen. I'm sorry. I really hope you like this chapter. The next one should come a lot faster. I'm not abandoning you!!

**The Weekend Part I**

September 26, 9:14 pm

Troy paced back and forth on his bedroom carpet. He looked at the screen of his phone again. He had called Ryan twice since Gabby left. Ryan needed to know what had just happened. It involved him too. Suddenly the futility of the situation caught up with him and anger overtook him.

"Fuck!" Troy yelled as he threw his phone into his pillow in anger. "Fuck, fuck. What am I gonna do?" he muttered to himself. "Come on Ryan…"

Suddenly his cell awoke from its night-long silence with the ring Troy had programmed for Ryan. He lunged for the phone and quickly flipped it open.

"Ryan?" Troy asked, his voice shaking.

"Troy? What's wrong?" Ryan asked, worried at the sound of Troy's voice. "Are you okay?"

"Um… listen can you come over here?" Troy said, trying to calm down.

"Yeah, sure. But Troy, what's wrong?" Troy could here a rustling on the other side and he knew Ryan was standing up to start heading over to his house.

"It's just… I'll explain when you get here"

"Did something happen Troy?" Ryan was clearly still worried

"I'll tell you when you get here…" Troy repeated

"OK, I'll be there in a minute." Ryan said, his voice still tinged with concern. "I've got to tell me mom where I'm going, OK? I'll be there in a second."

"OK," and then Ryan was gone.

9:20 pm

Troy was waiting by the door when Ryan knocked. He jumped when the knocking started, but he quickly opened the door.

"Ryan." Troy pulled the smaller boy into the house and into a hug. "We're in trouble."

"Troy what's going on?" Ryan asked clearly worried.

"Gabbriella came over a few minutes ago…" Troy started.

"Gabri…ella? What was she doing here?"

"She was here to tell me what she's doing next." Troy said, looking into Ryan's eyes.

"But… why would she do that?" Ryan asked, still confused.

"That's not important. What's important is what she's going to do next week."

"Wha… okay." Ryan's mind raced, trying to think of what she could do. "What else could she possibly do to you?"

"She's gonna tell the entire school about us" Troy said flatly. "She's gonna tell everyone. That means the basketball team, Sharpay… and my dad…" for the first time, Troy looked away from Ryan's face.

"But… how did she know about us?" Ryan asked, confusion sweeping across his face.

"She…" Troy hesitated, unsure of whether or not to let Ryan know she had found _his_ note. He couldn't let that hang over Ryan's head. "She said she… saw us up in the school roof garden," he said, looking down at his shoes to hide his lie.

"But… she can't do this!" Ryan exclaimed, becoming outraged. "She can't just keep going around ruining your life!" Ryan threw his hands down in anger. "What is her problem?!"

"Ryan! Calm down" Troy grabbed Ryan's hands and held them in his own. "We can deal with her later. But don't you realize what this means?" He once again held Ryan's grey blue eyes in his own. "With Sharpay and my dad at the school… both our families will find out about… us, when Gabby lets the whole school know."

Ryan gave a small nod. "We both know Sharpay can't keep a secret…" He chuckled at his attempt to lighten the mood, but it fell flat when he saw the seriousness in Troy's eyes.

"I don't know about you, but if my parents are gonna learn im gay, they are gonna learn it from me, not some school rumor." He stared intensely at Ryan.

Ryan nodded his head once again, understanding what Troy was saying. "I feel the same way."

Troy leaned down and pressed his forehead against Ryan's. "And I don't think I can do that without you helping me."

Ryan looked down at his boyfriend's lips and then back up to his eyes. "We are gonna do this together." He saw Troy smile at the edge of his vision. "And we're gonna be fine." And then he leaned down and kissed Troy to seal the deal.

September 27, 12:24 pm

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Ryan grabbed Troy's hand and squeezed it. They were laying on Troy's bed, staring up at the ceiling, mentally preparing for what they were about to do.

Troy shifted to lay on his side and look at Ryan. "You're beautiful, ya know that?"

Suddenly he felt a push, and found himself staring up at the ceiling, on the floor. "Don't change the subject" Ryan said giggling.

"No, seriously." Troy pulled him self back up on the bed and lay down on his side once more. He began playing with the soft hair on the side of Ryan's head. "you're beautiful."

Ryan smiled his big white perfect smile. "Thanks gorgeous." He ruffled Troy's messy brown hair, turning on his side so that the two were facing each other.

"I don't want to go down there." Troy smiled sadly.

"But we have to… and you know that I will be right there with you."

"Yeah… I know."

"Come on. You have to do this before it gets too late." Ryan sat up and pulled Troy with him. "Come on. I'll be right there to help you."

Ryan pulled the reluctant Troy up from the bed and to the top of the stairs.

"Ryan, I can't. This is… how can I do this? What am I going to say?"

"I don't know Troy. But you'll figure it out."  
"But I don't want to do this, Ryan. I don't want to tell them."

"Troy, you _need_ to do this, they need to hear this from _you_."

"You're right."

"Come on."

12:32 pm

"Hey, hun. Are you gonna be home tonight?" Mrs. Bolton looked up from her book as she sat in the family room. Troy stood at the doorway, not meeting her eyes. When there was no response, Troy's dad looked over the back of the couch he had been laying on with a questioning look.

"Hey dad, hey mom." Troy said with attempted enthusiasm.

"Is something wrong son?" Jack Bolton asked, noticing Troy was not his usual self. Troy made his way into the room and sat down across the room from his parents. Ryan followed him in and sat and the arm of the chair. He smiled at the two adults, but let Troy start the conversation.

"Is there something you wanna tell us, hun?" Troy's mom looked questioningly at the two boys.

"Um… yeah… there, uh, is something I was hoping I could tell you guys." Troy looked up at his parents for the first time, resigned to what he was about to do.

Troy's parents turned to each other nervously, then turned back to face their son. "Well go ahead son, you know you can tell us anything."

"Um… anything…?" Troy looked hopefully at his mother, and then at his father.

"Of… course son. You don't need to keep anything from us. We're your parents." Troy's dad said, trying to be supportive.

"It's just that…" Troy looked at his parents again, but it was too much. He quickly looked back down at his feet.

Suddenly he felt a nudge at his shoulder. He looked up and saw Ryan's elbow sitting on his shoulder. His eyes followed the arm and landed on Ryan's face, which was looking down at him with a supportive smile. Ryan held Troy's eyes with his own, and he knew that he needed to do this.

"Mom, Dad… I'm… gay." He reached over and grabbed Ryan's hand. "And I'm going out with Ryan." He looked away from Ryan's face to see the reactions of his parents.

The faces he saw weren't happy. But… they weren't angry either. There were no emotional tears in his mother's eyes like he pictured. The faces he saw were… worried.

"Oh, honey, are you absolutely sure about this?"

"This is a big thing to decide at such an early point in you life, son." The concern on the faces of his parents made Troy unsure of what they're ultimate reaction was.

"Yes… yes I'm sure. This is who I am!"

"But honey, what about Gabriella?"

"Mom! What I felt for Gabby couldn't even compare to what I feel for Ryan!" Troy squeezed Ryan's hand and stared defiantly at his mother. "This is who I am!" he repeated. "And if you can't deal with it—"

"Wait son, if this is how you truly feel. We support you one-hundred percent."

"He's right dear, it's your life. We just want you to have the best life we can give you. We just don't want you to have trouble because of who you are." Mrs. Bolton said. She rose from the recliner she was sitting in and made her way over to Troy. "Come here honey." She held her arms out in a welcoming gesture.

Troy felt Ryan unwind his hand from his own. He stood and quickly made his way over to his mother's arms. She enclosed him in a warm motherly hug. "We love you honey."

"There is nothing you could do that would make it any different, son." Jack Bolton stood and began to pat his son on the back.

"Thank you, guys. I love you," Troy said through his mother's shoulder.

"We love you too," his parents responded in unison.

From behind them Ryan smiled.

And then he sneezed.

1:27 pm

"Admit it!" Troy yelled, as he pushed Ryan on his bed and began to attack his ticklish sides with his fingers.

"Admit…_haha_… what!" Ryan yelled trying to squirm away from Troy's hands.

"You sneezed on purpose!" Troy continued to attack Ryan, moving up his sides to his armpits.

"No. No! I didn't!..._hahahaha_… stop!" Ryan tried to push Troy away with his feet.

"You were trying to get some more attention. Admit it!" Troy climbed on top of Ryan

"Never! _Hahahaha!_"

"Ryan—"

"Wait Troy!" Ryan gasped for breath.

Troy paused, hovering above the blonde boy.

"What you said. About me and Gabby. Did you mean that?"

"What thing"

"That she couldn't compare to me. Did you mean that?"

"Of course I did," Troy said, falling to the side of Ryan. Once again they boys lay side by side on the brunette's bed.

"I feel the same…" Ryan said, turning to face Troy.

"That your better than Gabby?" Troy said, chuckling.

"No." Ryan hit Troy in the shoulder. Troy turned so that the two boys were face to face. "That this relationship can't compare to anything else that I've ever had."

"Ryan. You're the best thing that has ever happened to me." He grabbed Ryan's hand.

"I feel the same about you…" Ryan moved his head down and began to press his lips to Troy's. Troy moved his body closer, engaging and intensifying the kiss. Troy began to run his tongue along the blonde's lips, which were quickly parted. Ryan felt Troy's tongue begin to explore his mouth and began to press his own tongue against it. Troy backed off a little, and began to suck on Ryan's bottom lip, which earned a moan from the smaller blonde boy. Ryan reciprocated by running his hands through the brunette's hair and began attacking his boyfriend's neck. He nibbled along the basketball player's chin and then began sucking and biting down on his neck, earning multiple moans and swearwords from his boyfriend. After leaving a noticeable mark on Troy's neck, Ryan made his way back up to Troy's mouth, kissing his way up his neck, chin, and then his nose. Troy began attacking his lips once again. The two boys battled for dominance, with neither one winning, until air became such a necessity that they had to break apart.

After the boys caught their breath, Troy pressed his forehead to Ryan's in what was becoming a signature gesture of their relationship.

"Do you think that you are ready to come out to your family tomorrow?" Troy asked, brushing wisps of hair out of Ryan's face.

"I don't know. But if you can do it, I can. As long as you're there with me."

"Don't worry baby, everything is going to be fine." Troy grabbed Ryan's hand once more and gave it a squeeze. He began to rub his thumb along the crook in Ryan's hand reassuringly.

"If my parents are half as good as yours, I'll be happy." Ryan smiled up at Troy.

"Don't worry. I'll be right there with you. Nothing could keep me from being there to help you."

"You're right. Thanks Troy" Ryan smiled.

Troy smiled back. "So what do you wanna do for your last day as a free man?" Troy asked, sitting up.

"This." Ryan pulled Troy back down, and began his revenge for the tickling he got earlier that day.

A/N: again I'm really sorry that it took me this long. I just had a really really bad writers block. I really hope you like it. Keep coming with the reviews. I love you all! thanks


	12. The Weekend Part II

A/N: Hey, I know that it has been over three months since I last posted on here

A/N: Hey, I know that it has been over three months since I last posted on here. I'm really really sorry. I don't know if I hit a major writers block or was in one of my apathy stages, but I just didn't want to write. So to those of my fans who are still willing to read my stories, I submit another chapter.

**The Weekend Part II**

September 28, 12:36 pm

Ryan sat at the greasy, dirty, plate covered table, barely paying attention. He barely paid attention to the food (a cheeseburger), he barely paid attention to the waitress, and he barely felt the hand that was holding onto his beneath the secretive cover of the table. He saw the mouth moving as his boyfriend, his wonderful, super supportive, nice, funny, sweet boyfriend spoke; but he couldn't tell you what he was talking about. Suddenly he felt a stronger than usual squeeze on his hand.

"Ryan? Are you OK?" Troy asked with a concerned voice.

"Wha-? Oh yeah." Ryan focused back on the brunette across from him.

"Are you ready to head back to your house?" Troy asked, pointing to his own empty plate.

"Um… yeah. I guess I am…" Ryan looked down in his lap, not wanting Troy to see how nervous he was.

12:52 pm

"Do you think… do you think we could go to your house first?" Ryan asked, suddenly grabbing Troy's forearm as the other boy drove.

"Yeah, if you really want to Ryan…" Troy said, pulling onto their street.

"It's just… I don't know if I can… how am I supposed to—"

"Ryan! Calm down. I know you're nervous," Troy said, reaching down to hold the frightened boy's hand. "I'm going to be right there with you."

"But what if my parents aren't as accepting as yours? What if… they freak? And kick me out! And I get disowned!" Ryan started to breath quickly and squeezed Troy's hand tightly.

"None of that is going to happen Ryan. You're going to tell the that your gay, and they are going to fine with it, because they are your parents and they love you." Troy pulled into his driveway. "But if you want, we can wait at my house until we're ready."

"No, no. You're right Troy. I should do this now." Ryan got out of the car and started walking towards his house. Troy quickly fell in behind him.

"Good. Believe me, this is just something you need to get over with." Troy followed the other boy over the long green lawn and up to the front door.

"Yeah, yeah… you're right," Ryan opened the large wooden doors. "MOM! I'm back!" Ryan's voice reverberated through the marble hall deep into the alcoves of the house.

"Oh Ducky, there you are!" Mrs. Evans entered the foyer from the kitchen. "I was just about to go work in the garden. Would you like to help?" Ryan's mom's hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she was wearing gardening gloves. "Oh Troy! I didn't see you there! Are you and Ryan planning on going up to his room?"

"Uh… Mom? Are uh… Dad, and 'Pay home?" Ryan shuffled his feet, looking at the floor.

"Oh sure honey! Oh wait… I'm sorry Ducky, you're dad just left to go check in at the resort. Can I help you instead?" Ryan's mom looked inquisitively at her blonde son.

"Well it's not really that, I was hoping I could… tell you guys… something—"

"What's that Ryan?" Sharpay entered from the hallway on the left. She surveyed the room and met Troy with an angry glare. "Troy."

"Hey Sharpay," Troy mumbled, barely audible.

"Your brother wanted to tell us something honey" Ryan's mom explained in the stead of her son.

"Oh what's that _brother_" Sharpay asked suspiciously.

"Well I was hoping I could tell Dad too…" Ryan continued shuffling his feet.

"Sorry Ducky, but I don't think your father will be home for a few hours."

"Oh, well… no I guess that's better… Dad wouldn't want to know anyway…" Ryan looked up at the questioning looks of his mother and sister, the at Troy. The brunette gave a questioning look, then a nod. "Let's go to the kitchen? OK?"

1:24 pm

Ryan looked around the kitchen, stopping momentarily on each person. His mother happily sat at the kitchen counter, waiting for Ryan's announcement. Troy sat there next to Ryan, on the opposite side of the counter, looking at him lovingly. He swiveled back and forth on the chair top, waiting for Ryan to start talking. Sharpay sat next to their mother, alternating between looking bored, and glaring at Troy.

"So if this is a family announcement, what is _he_ doing here?" Sharpay asked venomously, pointing to Troy.

"Oh honey, will you stop that. If Ryan wants his friend to be here, then that's reason enough." Ryan's Mom turned back to Ryan expectantly. "Go on Ducky."

"Well you see… um… this announcement sorta… deals with Troy…. Too." Ryan said looking anywhere but at his family. Neither Sharpay nor his mother seemed surprised. "Well… um… ya see… Troy and I are sorta…"

"Oh get on with it will you?" Sharpay yelled exasperatedly. "I have things to do. _Some_ of us haven't abandoned our social expectations."

"Sharpay Evans! Your brother is trying to tell us something that is obviously hard for him. Now you will sit there and be supportive of him!" Ryan's Mom once again turned from her daughter to her son.

"Thanks… Mom…" Ryan said, nodding in his mother's direction.

"You're welcome Ducky, now go on baby," she said, composing herself.

"Well I guess I better just come out and say it… Troy and I are…," Ryan looked at his mom and sister one more time before sighing. Suddenly he felt his stool jolt, and he knew it was Troy. "We're dating! OK? I'm… gay…"

Ryan looked down at the kitchen counter, and then looked up at his family. "Oh honey… we know." Ryan's mother said with a smile.

"You really thought we couldn't tell you were gay?" Sharpay scoffed. "Though golden boy… I'm surprised," she once again stared at Troy.

"We've always known you were gay honey." Ryan's mom reached across the counter to grab his hands.

"But…" Ryan stared dumbfounded.

"Well it's not as if you were tough to figure out Ducky."

"Yeah, between the yoga, the singing, the theater. Who didn't know that you were gay?!" Sharpay laughed, it was almost a cackle.

"Me, for one." Said a cold voice to the left. "_I_ for one, had no idea that my _son_ was a _fairy_"

1:33 pm

The room had been quiet for over a minute now. Troy, Ryan, Sharpay, and Mrs. Evans sat at the kitchen counter, staring at the man standing in the doorway.

"Honey… I thought you were at the resort…" Ryan's mom broke the silence.

"I forgot my wallet," He said quickly. "Now would you like to repeat yourself there, Ryan?"

Ryan didn't make any move to speak. He sat there staring at a point on the black and white tiled floor.

"Does anyone want to clarify what I just heard?" Ryan's father spat out coldly. "That my son is a _fag_!" He punctuated the last word by throwing his keys against the wall.

"Don't over react dear. This is Ryan we're talking about. He's our son. We love him." Ryan's mother got up from her stool and made her way over to her husband.

"How could you accept this _abomination_ so easily? Queers… are a sin on this earth. We can't just accept them," he spat out. "I heard you laughing. Mind telling me what the _joke_ was?" Ryan's father was growing visibly angrier by the second.

"Daddy—"

"Go to your room Sharpay." Mr. Evans dismissed his daughter, and she left without another word. As she exited the kitchen, she threw one worried glance towards Ryan, but continued to scamper towards the stairs.

"And you, Troy. I would like you to leave right now." Ryan's father began to breath heavily. Troy looked at Ryan, but the blonde didn't respond. He slowly began to get up, but a hand immediately reached out to grab onto his arm. Troy froze in his rising position.

"You can't leave me right now," Ryan said shakily. He still hadn't met his father's eyes.

Troy, also shaken, looked at his boyfriend. He had never seen Ryan this frightened before. Not even when Troy was deciding whether or not to accept their first kiss had Ryan looked so pitiful. Suddenly he snapped out of his fear. Troy stood up from his bench and stepped closer to Ryan. He put his arm around the shoulder of the shaking boy and pulled him close, glaring defiantly at Ryan's father.

"I think you may have misunderstood me," the man in front of them sputtered. "I want you out of my house. _NOW_!" He clenched his fist and seemed to grow even taller.

"Vance! What is wrong with you!" Ryan's mother yelled, attempting to talk some sense into her enraged husband.

Already Troy could feel Ryan becoming more nervous in his arms. "I'm not going to leave Ryan here with you angry like this." He started rubbing his thumb on Ryan's shoulder, attempting to give the other boy some of his bravery.

"And why is that, _Troy_?" Ryan's father began to step forward but was stopped by his wife.

"… because he's my boyfriend," a small voice sprouted from the boy next to Troy. Ryan had stopped shaking without Troy noticing, and was now looking directly at his father.

"What?" Ryan's father again attempted to move closer to the boys, but he stopped when his wife stepped in front of him.

"Vance! Stop this right now! Ryan is your son, and you will accept him the way he is!" Ryan's Mom glared angrily at her husband.

"You're right honey." Vance Evans' voice took on a sarcastically sweet note. "Let's let the boy talk. What were you saying? _Son_?"

"I said," Ryan said through now gritted teeth, "Troy is my boyfriend. I am gay, _father_." Ryan stood from his stool suddenly. Troy's hand fell from his shoulder and immediately reached for his hand.

"That's what I thought you said," Ryan's father seemed to growl, the sickly sweet tone from before gone.

"Vance this is your son. You need to accept him," Ryan's mother said.

"No, Elizabeth… Because you see: he's not my son anymore." Vance Evans turned and began to walk out of the kitchen. "I don't want to see that boy again." And then he was gone.

Ryan's mother started to run off after her husband. Before she left she turned around to look at the two boys again. "Ryan, honey… I'll go talk to your father. Until then… you should probably go to Troy's house." A look of pain crossed her face as she said this. "I'm sorry he reacted this way honey… don't worry. He'll come around soon." And then she ran off into the house to find the man she married.

Troy, dumbstruck by what just happened, looked over at Ryan. Within the last minute, the façade of bravery and defiance had crumbled, and the boy Troy now saw showed what was truly going on inside Ryan. Suddenly Ryan turned and buried his face into Troy's strong shoulder. Soon, Troy could feel the tears leaking into his shirt, and he pulled his boyfriend closer to him. He placed on hand on Ryan's back, rubbing slowly up and down to comfort the crying boy, while with the other hand he held the blonde's face to his shoulder.

9:07 pm

Troy and Ryan sat on the bed in Troy's room. Below, Troy could hear his mother rummaging through the laundry room for extra sheets to put on the blow up bed that was now sitting on the floor.

As the boys came in, Troy's parents had quickly understood what had happened. They quickly told Ryan that he could stay as long as he needed to. They had quickly and quietly dug out the guest blow up bed and set it up in Troy's room. They had politely not mentioned what had happened to Ryan just a few minutes ago, realizing from his vacant look that he didn't want to talk.

During dinner, there was a long uncomfortable silence, which Troy's mother gave up on breaking after ten minutes. After poking at his meatloaf for half an hour, Ryan put down his fork and continued to sit there until Troy's mom cleared the plates.

At the moment, Ryan was sitting in the center of Troy's bed, staring vacantly at a place a few centimeters behind Troy's head. Troy sat on the edge of the bed, looking concernedly at his boyfriend. Ryan hadn't said anything but a simple "thank you" since he had left his house. At the moment, it didn't look like Ryan was going to break his silence any time soon.

A quick knock signified the arrival of Troy's mother with the extra sheets. "Here you go boys. If you need anything at all Ryan, feel free to ask." Troy's mom gave a weak smile as Ryan acknowledged her statement. She looked at the two boys in the room. Both boys were sitting in a t-shirt and boxers, already ready for sleep. They had already turned off all the lights except the one on the bedside table. The darkness of the night was covering most of the room. She quickly dropped the sheets on the airbed, and turned to leave. As she was closing the door she glanced back one more time at Ryan, but he had already lost focus.

Troy went back to looking concernedly at his distraught boyfriend, while Ryan seemed to be oblivious. Unable to stand it anymore, Troy crawled up his bedspread to sit next to the blonde boy. Pulling himself to a sitting position directly behind the other boy, Troy put his arms around Ryan's waist, splaying his legs to either side of the skinny boy. He was relieved to feel Ryan sag back into his strong body, the closest the other boy had been to relaxing in a few hours. Troy felt the blonde lay his head back onto his shoulder, revealing his neck with a sigh.

"I don't know what to say…" Troy whispered, resting his head against Ryan's.

"I don't think there's anything you can say" Ryan whispered back, finally fully relaxing into Troy's grip.

The two boys sat like this for a few minutes, Troy with his back against the headboard, Ryan, laying back into Troy's strong, comforting grip.

"We should get to sleep… its been a… long day." Troy shifted so that he could lay down, still holding onto Ryan.

"Yeah… we have school tomorrow…" Ryan said, lying down next to Troy.

"Do you think you're ready for school tomorrow? We can skip it if you need to." Troy said to Ryan's back, pulling the smaller boy into an even closer embrace.

"No… we should go. We need to be there to deal with all the rumors." Ryan said, his voice growing quieter by the minute. He yawned quietly and shuffled backwards to get closer to Troy's warmth. Troy curved his body to lovingly spoon Ryan's body while embracing him. He could feel the muscles of the other boy relaxing as he sank closer and closer into sleep. Troy reached over the smaller boy to turn out the lamp by the bed with a click. In the darkness Troy snuggled even closer to Ryan's relaxed body and pulled a sheet over the two of them. He buried his face into the soft halo of Ryan's blonde hair and softly kissed the top of his head.

He could already hear the rhythmic breathing, tell-tale of sleep. "I'm sorry Ryan… I wish there was more I could say," he mumbled to the sleeping boy. And then, as he felt himself slipping into sleep next this beautiful boy, he suddenly felt an irresistible urge to admit something to the boy. "I… I love you, Ryan," he mumbled… finding it difficult to say, even though Ryan was asleep. "I love you."

A/N: Again… I'm really sorry that it took me so long to write this chapter. I hit a major writing block. But school has started over again, and now that I have something to avoid, I'll be writing a lot more again. Please Review.


	13. Who Would Have Known

A/N: Inspiration has struck. And now I have lots more branches for this story to go down. In this chapter I will introduce two. Hope you guys like it. REVIEW GODDAMMIT!

**Who Would Have Guessed**

September 29, 8:17 am

Troy and Ryan sat in the back of the classroom. At first glance, it seemed like every other Monday. But if you looked closely, you could see that there was something wrong. Ryan hadn't looked up from his notebook once. His pencil held at the ready, over a piece of paper that was still blank. Troy was constantly looking at the other kids in the classroom, trying to see if any of them were looking suspiciously back at him. The two boys who were normally chatting in the back had been silent so far. Even the teacher took notice.

Surprisingly, there was nothing from the students. No stares, no shushed whispers as the boys passed from one class to another next to each other. Not one person pointed, laughed or snickered. Troy was beginning to think that maybe Gabriella had been bluffing in order to stress him out. He even voiced this thought to Ryan during the class right before lunch.

"Hey Ry, are you OK?" Troy leaned over the gap between their two desks to whisper to the blonde boy.

"Yeah… just preparing for what's going to happen." Ryan said, sitting back in his chair and sighing.

"That's just it. I was just thinking. What if Gabriella was bluffing?" Troy asked excitedly.

"Troy… after everything she's done, do you really think she would bluff about this?" Ryan asked exasperatedly.

"I was just… hoping…" Troy mumbled, sitting back in his seat as well.

"I hope you're right," whispered Ryan.

11:57 am

Troy walked into the cafeteria with Ryan in tow. They quickly found an open table and sat down. Normally, Troy would have gone and gotten enough food for both boys from the food service line, but neither of them felt like eating. Within five minutes, Katie, Sarah, Kelsi, and Cel had all arrived with their food and had begun chowing down. Sarah offered Ryan some of her cake when she was done, but the skinny blonde refused. Both boys looked down at the table and refused to enter into any conversation, even if only to answer what was wrong.

The other four teens at the table could tell there was something wrong with the couple, but they had no idea. There was no way they could have guessed what it was, but the fact that neither boy had looked up from the table since lunch had started proved there was something wrong. If only one of them would talk.

Finally, Katie decided to break the silence with what she thought was the most obvious questions. "Are you two having trouble in your relationship?" she asked quietly?

Troy looked up from the spot he had been staring at for the past fifteen minutes. "What? Oh… no nothing like that. Sorry guys, didn't mean to be so quiet." Troy gave a weak smile to the girl sitting in front of him.

"Well that's good. I was afraid something… was…" Katie stopped her statement there, because the lunchroom had suddenly become silent.

The lunchroom never went silent. Never in the history of East High had there been _nothing_ to talk about in the lunchroom. Unfortunately, today was that momentous day, where for the first time everyone in the lunchroom had fallen silent, and turned their head to see a short Hispanic girl standing on top of her table in the middle of the room. Slowly but surely, the entire room, even the back corners and balcony, had fallen silent at what they assumed was going to be a momentous announcement. And Gabby waited. She waited until she could not hear a single peep from the entire room, she waited until every pair of eyes within 100 feet of her was looking directly at her face. And when she finally achieved that difficult goal, she began:

"Everyone, I have an announcement to make." She said with a glint in her eyes that would have been cliché if this situation weren't so horrible for the two boys. "This is the sort of announcement you will want to share with your friends, in fact, I implore you to tell them, so pay attention if you want an extra juicy story." Gabby spun around in a circle on top of the red table to make sure that she still had everyone's attention. "Many of you know the story of what happened between me and my ex-boyfriend Troy Bolton this summer. How he used me," her voice got slightly softer here, sounding almost sad, if you didn't know better. "I would just like to let all of you know the second addition to this horrible story of mine. Perhaps it's the reason behind that behemoth's actions. Oh, I know, why don't we ask him?" Gabby turned to look directly at Troy. "Is there anything you would like to tell the class, Troy?" Gabby crossed her arms on her chest and pretended to wait.

All Troy could do was glare at her. Even after all she had done, he couldn't believe she was doing _this_. And as much as he wanted to be the one to let his secret out, as much as he wanted to tear the reigns of control away from that bitch, he couldn't. Because he was still holding onto that hope that maybe she wouldn't actually tell everyone. And that meant that if he didn't tell them, and she didn't tell them, he could still keep this all a secret, and not have his last year at East High completely ruined beyond repair. He still had that hope, and so he couldn't answer. All he could do was glare.

"No? Oh well then. I guess it's my duty to tell them." And that was when the bell rang.

_'Never before has saved by the bell been so literal'_ Troy thought. Relieved he started to get up and leave the table. That was when he noticed that no one else in the rather large room had moved an inch. Normally, at least the nerds would be desperate to get to class so as not to be late, but not today. Everyone in the room was still staring directly at Gabby.

"Troy Bolton," Gabriella continued, "once golden boy of Easy High, pillar of masculinity, is _gay_." A ripple of whispers made its way across the room. Troy couldn't tell if they were doubtful or believing. "And if you don't believe me, you can just ask his boyfriend, Ryan Evans." And then, as if she had just done nothing out of the ordinary, Gabby stepped off her table, picked up her tray, and made her way across and out of the lunchroom.

Immediately, eye in the lunchroom turned towards Troy and Ryan. Some were stares of awe and surprise, while others were nothing more than glares of hatred. And that is exactly when Troy grabbed his boyfriend by the hand, he pulled him up out of his seat, and then he ran, pulling Ryan behind him, out of the lunchroom.

6:57 pm

Troy and Ryan did not show up for any of their afternoon classes. They called their parents and went home sick directly after lunch. Unfortunately, in the eyes of most, this only confirmed the fact that Troy was, in fact, dating Ryan Evans. By the time the first period after lunch had ended, the entire school had heard the rumor, and each person was personally decrying it or confirming it. By three o'clock, up to thirty stories were being circulated about finding the boys fucking in the bathroom, making out on the roof, and a few boys even said that they had seen Troy watch them as the changed in the locker room.

A good portion of the school was going with the "I always sorta knew it" idea, trying to prove they were ahead of the curve. A few girls were going around crying, saying how disappointed they were in having spent so long crushing on a gay asshole. A small pocket of kids refused to believe in the rumor, but they were in the minority. But the boys had no idea about any of this.

After they arrived at Troy's house, they both turned off their cell phones. In silence, they did their homework for the next day; they set up Ryan's airbed once again, at the same time cleaning the entirety of Troy's room for the first time in months. Then, with no other chores to do, and still entirely alone in the Bolton house, the two did the only thing they could think of: they ate. Within five minutes, a new pack of Oreos © had been completely demolished, along with half a bag of chips, and two soda's for each boy. Finally, when both boys had eaten their fill, they sat down at the counter. That's when Ryan smiled.

"It's over. The whole school knows." He looked over at his boyfriend with a curious grin.

"By this point, they've probably all discussed it and decided whether to believe it, and what to do about it." Troy sighed.

"What if… that's a good thing?" Ryan asked, still with the strange look on his face.

"Wha…" Troy was dumbfounded.

"Well, I mean, its not like it can make anything worse. If anything it might actually get us some support from the other gay kids at the school." Ryan turned to face Troy directly. "And there has to be at least one person who will see a contradiction in Gabriella's first story about you and this rumor." Troy was slowly beginning to catch on. "And now, we don't have to worry about hiding our relationship…" Ryan reached over and grabbed Troy's hand.

"So… now we don't have to worry as much… everyone that matters already knew…" Troy said, beginning to smile as well. Suddenly he frowned again. "But for every one person who starts to treat me, er… us, better, there will be at least five who will fuck with us more for being gay." Troy squeezed Ryan's hand again.

"We've been dealing with the shit they throw at you for months now. I don't think they could make it any worse." Ryan smiled full on this time.

"I hope you're right." Troy allowed a small smile to creep onto his face.

"I may just have to thank Gabriella after all…" Ryan giggled, then leaned forward and pressed his lips against Troy's.

September 30, 2:46 pm

The boys treated that day just like every other day. They got to school early, and listened to music in Ryan's car (Troy's had been fixed for weeks now, but Ryan's was more fun to drive). When first period started they entered the classroom, walked to the back together, and spent the entire class talking silently. Questioning glances and angry glares were directed towards the boys, but they ignored it like they always had. That lunch, for the first time ever, Troy and Ryan held hands in the lunchroom, finally confirming once and for all that Gabriella had been telling the truth.

Troy's locker displayed, unsurprisingly, new words of hate, including queer, fag, various spellings of faggot, and other words he wouldn't dare utter in front of his mother. Ryan's locker contained only one extra thing: a love note. Troy laughed at the frilly handwriting but Ryan punched him when they saw an embarrassed sophomore walk by quickly, looking embarrassed.

They were currently sitting in their final period waiting for the bell to ring. Overall, the day had been no worse or better than any other day they had experienced together. Troy was beginning to think that maybe it wouldn't be so bad. When the bell rang, the class got up and left, leaving the two boys alone in the room with only an oblivious teacher.

"Hey, I'll meet you at the car, okay babe? I've got to go talk to the economics teacher." Troy smiled at Ryan and began packing up his bag.

"Yeah, that's fine. I have to go check on something in the theater anyway." Ryan smiled and gave Troy a peck on the cheek as they exited the classroom.

Troy made his way to the Economics teacher's classroom, only to find that it was already abandoned and locked.

"Damnit. How am I supposed to figure out what our homework was if the teacher can't even stay five minutes after school!" Troy knocked his head against the glass on the door. Suddenly he heard a cough behind him. He turned around, and that's when he saw them. A semicircle of boys had surrounded him, trapping him against the wall. He knew two or three of them by face, but none of them personally. None of them seemed that physically intimidating, but there were at least seven of them.

"Listen fag, we don't want your kind in our school." The largest of the boys spoke, Troy remembered him being a senior, he was probably the only one that Troy would have had trouble taking in a solo fight. The circle slowly tightened around Troy. Suddenly Troy heard the squeak of sneakers and other yells.

Ryan walked down the hall into the theater looking for Darbus. He went backstage so that he could find his favorite teacher.

"Mrs. Darbus! Are you in here? I have something to talk to you about for the next musicale!" Ryan yelled. His voice echoed in the empty hall. He continued to call out for the theater teacher as he made his way up to the stage. He did a quick spin as he called out one last time, getting a good look at the seats in front of him.

"Hm… guess she's in her class—" and that was when Ryan felt a body hitting his, and he fell to the floor.

A/N: I hope you guys liked it. Im feeling sorta depressed to there are going to be writing a lot more. I'm sorry, ive been distracted by a boyfriend, but we broke up (Hence the depressed-ness) so this is, I guess, to help myself prove I can keep living, like I usually do.


	14. Just Can't Be Done

A/N: I dedicate this section of the story to two people. The first: Brad. I doubt you'll read this unless you got my hint from my AIM status. You were my inspiration for this chapter over a month ago, but I got distracted by our relationship. I promised you I would put you in my story and I never go back on a promise. As sad as this is, if there is ANYTHING I could do to get you to take me back I would do it. The second is to Logan. You have helped me get through my depressed-ness as much as I have so far. You have listened to me blather for three nights in a row, so thank you. Thanks to my reviewers I love you all, RockinRobbien I expect a cookie. Make it chocolate chip.

**Just Can't Be Done**

September 30, 3:17 pm

Troy was surrounded by a group of teenage boys of various sizes and ages. Three of them were glaring at him angrily, clenching their rather strong looking fists. Two had turned to face opposite directions to look out for coming teachers, while the last two were looking confused and desperate to do something.

"Did you hear me queer? I said we don't want you here" The largest of the boys spat at Troy. Troy eyed him up and down, and then looked at the other boys in the group. As far as he could see it, there was no way he could get out without a fight.

"Well you're not exactly giving me a way to leave." Troy said defiantly. He tensed up and prepared for the hit he knew was going to come. He waited to feel the sucker punch to the gut, and he waited, and then he noticed that the group had opened up a little.

"If it means we never have to see you again, leave faggot." Troy was surprised to say the least. There, in front of him, was an opening. They were _letting_ him leave. He had to take it, its not like he had a reputation to protect any more.

Troy took one step forward, glancing at the boys surrounding him. None of them made a move to hit him, it looked like they were following the lead of the larger boy. He took another step out of the center of the semi-circle, and when there was still no response from the other teens, he began to take full strides away from the threat of a beat down. It was when he was one full step out of the circle that the other boys finally moved. With Troy's back facing them, the leader of the group quickly turned, and _that's_ when they hit him.

A powerful punch in the kidneys, followed by a swift kick to the back of Troy's right knee, and Troy was down. It wasn't a second before they started attacking his sides and groin with short strong kicks. It wasn't a fair fight; Troy never had a chance. In between kicks Troy hear a new sound, the squeaking of shoes and more voices. He fought to get up to defend himself, but he was only kicked down again. From the ground, Troy could see a whole new set of feet surrounding the ones kicking him.

_NO! Not more people!_

TRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTR

3:20 pm

Ryan lay on the ground pressed under the weight of another boy, one who had inexplicably tackled him as he walked in the theater. Ryan quickly twisted around and pushed the other, smaller boy off of him. As soon as the weight was off his midsection, he clambered up and tensed his legs, ready to run if the boy came at him again.

"Wait no! Don't go anywhere. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to… uh… tackle you," the other boy yelled as soon as Ryan got out from underneath him.

"How do you _accidentally_ tackle someone?" Ryan asked, brushing himself off. He was still ready to run if he needed to, but now that he got a look at the boy, he was pretty sure that wouldn't be necessary.

The boy getting up in front of him was probably only 5'3" at most, maybe just over 100 pounds. He had shaggy brown hair, a little longer than Troy's, brown eyes, and a small face. He looked like he wouldn't be able to beat up a seven year old, much less a full-grown high school senior. He was currently standing under Ryan's judging gaze, using every ounce of self control to keep from running away in embarrassment.

"I, well, I was running to talk to you from, um, there," he turned and pointed at a raised portion of the stage just a few feet away, "and I, sorta, tripped. I promise I didn't mean to. I'm so sorry!" the smaller boy looked Ryan in the eye pleadingly, then quickly dropped his gaze to his shoes, but not before Ryan saw an embarrassed blush.

"Is there a reason you were so eager to get to me?" Ryan asked, confused.

"I, uh, I thought I heard you calling my name." The boy scratched the back of his head. "I'm James… uh, James Darbus." He flashed a quick grin at Ryan.

"Darbus… but…" Ryan was dumbfounded. Mrs. Darbus had never said she had any kids.

"I'm Mrs. Darbus' nephew," James explained. "Oh… you were looking for my aunt… weren't you?" a look of shame crossed the boy's face as he realized he had tackled Ryan for no reason. "It's just, I thought you were calling for me, and I was waiting for you to come here, and I was hoping I could talk to you, because I could really use your help." James started twisting his hands nervously while he spoke speedily.

"OK! Ok. Just calm down. I guess I can talk to Darbus, er, Mrs. Darbus, tomorrow…" Ryan sat down on the edge of the stage.

"Thank you so much. I don't mean to bother you, if you have to leave or anything I understand, I mean, if you have to go to Troy or anything." James sat down next to Ryan, leaving a few inches of space in between them.

"Uh… don't worry about Troy. He can take care of himself."

TRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTR

3:22 pm

Troy was currently doing a very bad job of taking care of himself. He could feel the boys around him taking turns at kicking his sides, his back, his groin. One had even taken the energy to kneel down next to his head and start punching him in the face with slow, constant, strong punches. Suddenly he heard a grunt and felt the feet slowly stop kicking him. Finally even the boy at his face stopped the beating. He opened one swollen bloody eye and saw the last thing he expected.

Each one of the seven boys who had surrounded him was currently pressed up against the lockers along the hallway. Troy crawled to his knees and tried to get up, but immediately fell back over in pain. "Bastards" he winced. He took a quick inventory of his injuries. From the pain alone he knew he would have bruises all over, and maybe even a broken rib. He pressed lightly on his chest where the most pain was and winced with a quick intake of breath. He strained to push himself to an upright position, where he was able to get a blurry view of what was happening around him.

Grunts of pain and the quick exhales that came along with punches to the gut could be heard all around. Through bleary eyes he saw his assailants getting a taste of their own medicine. Troy sensed a person standing behind him, and felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you okay dude? Looks like the got you pretty bad…" a blurry face appeared in front of him. "Do you need me to take you to the nurse?" the boy in front of him asked.

"Yeah, can you give me a hand getting up?" Troy felt an arm going around his back and under his armpit, lifting him up. He winced as he felt pain shooting up his leg. "Ah!"

"I'll carry you. Don't worry." Troy felt a cloth wipe across his open eye, and suddenly the blood was gone, and he could get a clearer view of his saviors.

"Wait… what are you doing helping me?"

TRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTR

3:25 pm

"So… James… what can I, uh, help you with? Are you new to this school? I don't think I've seen you around before" Ryan looked at the small boy next to him.

"Well, uh," James looked around them nervously, "I'm gay. Or, at least, I think I am." He looked hopefully at Ryan then back down at his hands in his lap. "Oh, yeah, I just started this year. Uh, my family moved here from Boston, to get closer to my aunt." He spoke quickly as if he only had a limited time to talk.

"Well, that was forward. Uh, well, I guess it's always good to admit it to yourself." Ryan was completely unsure of what to say.

"Yeah, well I'm pretty sure I'm gay, cause there's this boy I like, like, a lot, and I was wondering if you could, uh, help me?" James started swinging his legs back and forth and fidgeting his hands again.

"Well, uh, I'm not exactly sure how I could help you…" Ryan ran his fingers through his short blonde hair.

"Oh! Well, I thought, I don't know, I mean. Well I'm not entirely sure that he's gay, and I figured that you had the same thing with Troy, so…"

"So you figured I could tell you how I got Troy to go out with me?" Ryan laughed and rubbed his chin. At the same time he caught a glimpse of his watch. "Ah, shit. Troy will be looking for me. Can we talk tomorrow?" Ryan jumped down to the floor beneath the stage and turned to look at James.

The other boy followed his lead. "Yeah sure, no problem, no rush at all, here, I'll give you my cell number." He quickly pulled out a small piece of paper and wrote his name and number on it. "You can call me whenever you have time, or we can just meet back here, or in the library, or wherever you want, I mean, I don't care." He pushed out his hand and offered the small paper.

"Uh, yeah. I'll give you a call later. OK?" Ryan glanced at the paper and noted the frilly handwriting. Suddenly a memory from earlier crossed his mind. "Hey wait!" James stopped and turned around slowly. "You're the kid who left that note in my locker aren't you."

TRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTR

Troy continued to stumble down the hallway, held up by one of the people who had saved him. He repeated his question "Why are you, of all people helping me?"

"After Gabby spread the rumor you were gay," the other boy said, his words strained from holding Troy up. "We realized that you were probably telling the truth all along."

"We?" Troy winced as another shot of pain went through his body.

"Yeah." The other boy smiled. "The whole team agreed on it."

"Thanks, Chad." Troy's face flushed red at the reunion with his best friend.

"Don't get mushy on me golden boy." Chad punched Troy lightly on the shoulder, which immediately caused Troy to wince in pain. "Shit, sorry. Let's get you to the nurse.

A/N: I hope you guys like it. Obviously not done, but I would appreciate reviews. Thank you for your continuing support, and to those of you who wished me condolence on my break up. I love you all. Especially you.


End file.
